Visual Cortex and Visual Processing

Flashcards covering key concepts related to visual processing and anatomy within the brain.

Corpus Callosum

A structure that connects the left and right cerebral hemispheres, allowing communication between them.

Central Sulcus

A prominent fold in the cerebral cortex that separates the frontal lobe from the parietal lobe.

Calcarine Sulcus

A groove in the medial aspect of the occipital lobe that divides the upper and lower visual fields in the visual cortex.

Primary Visual Cortex (V1)

The part of the cerebral cortex that processes visual information and is involved in basic visual perception.

Achromatopsia

A condition characterized by an inability to perceive color due to damage in the visual cortex, particularly in area V4.

Akinetopsia

The inability to perceive motion, often resulting from damage to area V5 in the visual cortex.

Parvocellular pathway

A visual processing pathway that is responsible for color vision and fine detail, primarily processed by the blobs in V1.

Magnocellular pathway

A visual processing pathway responsible for motion detection and depth perception, processed by the interblobs in V1.

Retinotopic Mapping

The spatial organization of the visual field represented in a topographic manner throughout the visual cortex.

Fusiform Face Area

A region in the temporal lobe that is specialized for facial recognition.

Optic Chiasm

The crossing of the optic nerves from each eye, where visual information from the left field of vision is sent to the right hemisphere and vice versa.

Visual Form Agnosia

Inability to recognize objects due to damage in the lateral occipital area.

Dorsal Stream

A pathway in the brain that processes where objects are located; also known as the 'where' stream.

Ventral Stream

A pathway in the brain that identifies what objects are; also known as the 'what' stream.

Optic Ataxia

A condition characterized by an inability to use visual information to guide actions, generally linked to damage in the parietal lobe.

Cortical Color Blindness

A vision impairment caused by damage to the brain regions responsible for color processing, usually linked to V4.

Blobs and Interblobs

Distinct regions in the V1 cortex that process different types of visual information—blobs handle color, while interblobs process form and motion.