PSYC 2560 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Visual Cortex, Fusiform Face Area, Eardrum
Document Summary
Lowest level processing occurs in the primary cortex. Hierarchical organization: information processing begins with basic principles and becomes more complex (v1 is a low level vision area, v5 is seemingly more complex) Functional segregation: as we endure different stages of processing, there becomes more specialized areas of processing. Parallel processing: there are parallel streams of information. The brain does not process in series alone (there are two major visual pathways that process at the same time) Area of blindness in visual field often resulting from damage to the visual cortex. Completion phenomenon may result in sufferer being unavailable to detect loss of sight. Individual has some visual processing but isn"t consciously aware of it. Primary visual cortex is damaged: it is involved in consciousness. Other pathways are compensating (pathway from thalamus to v2 bypasses v1) for loss of primary visual cortex, allowing some vision. Dorsal stream: helps individual to identify where things are in space (where)