Article abstract


Nature Neuroscience 11, 224 - 231 (2008)
Published online: 13 January 2008 | doi:10.1038/nn2036

Two hierarchically organized neural systems for object information in human visual cortex

Christina S Konen1,2 & Sabine Kastner1,2,3


The primate visual system is broadly organized into two segregated processing pathways, a ventral stream for object vision and a dorsal stream for space vision. Here, evidence from functional brain imaging in humans demonstrates that object representations are not confined to the ventral pathway, but can also be found in several areas along the dorsal pathway. In both streams, areas at intermediate processing stages in extrastriate cortex (V4, V3A, MT and V7) showed object-selective but viewpoint- and size-specific responses. In contrast, higher-order areas in lateral occipital and posterior parietal cortex (LOC, IPS1 and IPS2) responded selectively to objects independent of image transformations. Contrary to the two-pathways hypothesis, our findings indicate that basic object information related to shape, size and viewpoint may be represented similarly in two parallel and hierarchically organized neural systems in the ventral and dorsal visual pathways.

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  1. Department of Psychology, Green Hall, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey 08540, USA.
  2. Center for the Study of Brain, Mind, and Behavior, Green Hall, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey 08540, USA.
  3. Princeton Neuroscience Institute, Green Hall, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey 08540, USA.

Correspondence to: Christina S Konen1,2 e-mail: ckonen@princeton.edu



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