Year: 2015
Type: article
Abstract: Area V5 of the visual brain, first identified anatomically in 1969 as a separate visual area, is critical for the perception of visual motion. As one of the most intensively studied parts of the visual brain, it has yielded many insights into how the visual brain operates. Among these are: the diversity of signals that determine the functional capacities of a visual area; the relationship between single cell activity in a specialized visual area and perception of, and preference for, attributes of a visual stimulus; the multiple asynchronous inputs into, and outputs from, an area as well as the multiple operations that it undertakes asynchronously; the relationship between activity at given, specialized, areas of the visual brain and conscious awareness; and the mechanisms used to "bind" signals from one area with those from another, with a different specialization, to give us our unitary perception of the visual world. Hence V5 is, in a sense, a microcosm of the visual world and its study gives important insights into how the whole visual brain is organized-anatomically, functionally and perceptually.
Author: Semir Zeki
Institution: University College London
Language: English
Subfield: Cognitive Neuroscience
Field: Neuroscience
Domain: Life Sciences
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $747
Funder: Wellcome Trust
OpenAlex ID: W1989255672