4 Visual Cortex Flashcards
Action pathway
Dorsal pathway
Ablation
Removal of an area of the brain. This is usually done experiments on animals, to determine the function of a particular area. Also call lesioning.
Brain imaging
Procedures that make it possible to visualize areas of the human brain that are activated by different types of stimuli, test, or behaviors. The most common techniques used in perception researcher positron emission tomography (PET) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI).
Complex cells
Neuron individual cortex that responds best to moving bars with a particular orientation.
Contralateral eye
Eye on the opposite side of the head from a particular structure.
Contrast threshold
Intensity difference that can just barely be seen between two areas. This is often measured using gradings with alternating light and dark arts.
Cortical magnification factor
Apportioning the small fovea with a large area on the cortex.
Dissociation
Situation that occurs as a result of brain damage in which one function is present in another is absent.
Dorsal pathway
Pathway that conducts signals from this try a quick text to the parietal lobe. This is also called the where, the how, or the action pathway to indicate its function.
Double dissociation
In brain damage, when function a is present in function b is absent in one person, and function a is absent and function b present another. Presence of the double dissociation means that the two functions involve different mechanisms and operate independently of one another.
End-stopped cells
Cortical neurons that responds best to lines of a specific length that are moving in a particular direction.
Experience-dependent plasticity
A process by which neurons adapted to the specific environment within which a person or animal lives. This is achieved when neurons change their response properties so they become tuned to respond best to stimuli that have been repeatedly experienced in the environment.
Extrastriate body area (EBA)
Area of the temporal lobe that is activated by pictures of bodies and parts of bodies.
Feature detectors
Neuron that response like to play to a specific feature of the stimulus.
Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI)
Brain imaging technique that indicates brain activity in awake, awake, behaving humans in response to perceptual stimuli.
Fusiform face area (FFA)
Area in the human inferotemporal (IT) cortex that contains neurons specialized to respond to faces.
Grating stimuli
Stimulus pattern consisting of alternating bars with different lightnesses and colors.
How pathway
Dorsal pathway
Hypercolumn
In the striate cortex, unit proposed by Hubel and Wiesel that combines location, orientation, and ocular dominance columns the survey specific area on the retina.
Ipsilateral eye
Eye on the same side of the head as this structure to which the eye sends inputs.
Landmark discrimination problem
Behavior test used in later in Ungerleider and Mushkin’s experiment in which they provided evidence for the dorsal, or where, visual processing stream. Monkeys were required to respond to a previously indicated location.
Lateral geniculate nucleus (LGN)
Nucleus in the thalamus that receives inputs from the optic nerve and, in turn, since fibers to the cortical receiving area for vision.
Location column
Column in the visual cortex that contains neurons with the same except a few locations on the retina.
Module
Structure that processes information about a specific behavior horse perceptual quality. Often identified as a structure that contains a large proportion of neurons that respond selectively to a particular quality.
