The Visual Brain in Action

✍ Scribed by A. David Milner, Melvyn A. Goodale

• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
• Year: 2006
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 320
• Series: Oxford Psychology Series 27
• Edition: 2
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

First published in 1995, 'The Visual Brain in Action' remains a seminal publication in the cognitive sciences. It presents a model for understanding the visual processing underlying perception and action, proposing a broad distinction within the brain between two kinds of vision: conscious perception and unconscious 'online' vision. It argues that each kind of vision can occur quasi-independently of the other, and is separately handled by a quite different processing system. In the 11 years since publication, the book has provoked considerable interest and debate - throughout both cognitive neuroscience and philosophy, while the field has continued to flourish and develop. For this new edition, the text from the original edition has been left untouched, standing as a coherent statement of the authors' position. However, a very substantial epilogue has been added to the book in which Milner and Goodale review some of the key developments that support or challenge the views that were put forward in the first edition. The new chapter summarizes developments in various relevant areas of psychology, neuroscience and behaviour. It notably supplements the main text by updating the reader on the contributions that have emerged from the use of functional neuroimaging, which was in its infancy when the first edition was written. Neuroimaging, and functional MRI in particular, has revolutionized the field over the past 11 years by allowing investigators to plot in detail the patterns of activity within the visual brains of behaving and perceiving humans. The authors show how its use now allows scientists to test and confirm their proposals, based as they then were largely on evidence accrued from primate neuroscience in conjunction with studies of neurological patients.

✦ Table of Contents

Preface to the 2nd Edition
......Page 8
Foreword to the 1st Edition (Lawrence Weiskrantz)
......Page 12
Preface to the 1st Edition
......Page 14
Figure Acknowledgements
......Page 16
Contents......Page 20
1. Introduction: vision from a
biological viewpoint......Page 24
1.1
Input pathways of the mammalian visual system......Page 25
1.2.1 The functions of
vision......Page 28
1.2.2 Visuomotor modules in non-mammalian
vertebrates......Page 30
1.3.1 Traditional
approaches......Page 35
1.3.2 Visuomotor modules in
mammals......Page 37
1.3.3 'Two visual systems'
hypotheses......Page 44
2.1.1
'On' and 'off' responses......Page 48
2.1.2 X, Y, and W
cells......Page 49
2.2.1 Magno and parvo
channels......Page 50
2.2.2 Magno and parvo projections to the Extrastriate
Cortex......Page 54
2.3.1 The Livingstone and Hubel
proposal......Page 56
2.3.2 Contrary
evidence......Page 57
2.3.3 Extrageniculate
inputs......Page 59
2.3.4
Summary......Page 61
2.4 The organization of the dorsal and ventral
streams: a proposed model......Page 62
2.5.1 Neuronal activity and visuomotor
guidance......Page 65
2.5.2 Coding of space for
action......Page 68
2.5.3 Coding of visual motion for
action......Page 69
2.5.4 Coding of object properties for
action......Page 74
2.5.5.1 Visual
inputs......Page 77
2.5.5.2 Parietofrontal
modules......Page 78
2.5.5.3 Descending
projections......Page 79
2.6.1 Neuronal coding for visual perception
and recognition......Page 81
2.6.2 What is visual perception
for?......Page 86
2.7 Conclusions: perception versus
action......Page 88
3.1
Introduction......Page 90
3.2.1
'Cortical blindness'......Page 91
3.2.2 The pupillary response and
GSR......Page 92
3.2.3 Guidance of reaching and
grasping......Page 93
3.2.4 Detection and discrimination in
blindsight......Page 100
3.2.5 Colour processing in
blindsight......Page 104
3.2.6 Motion processing in
blindsight......Page 106
3.3 Why is blindsight
blind?......Page 108
3.4
Conclusions......Page 109
4.
Disorders of spatial perception and the visual control of action......Page 110
4.1 Space: egocentric and allocentric
coding......Page 111
4.2.1 Disorders of reaching:
'optic ataxia' or 'disorientation'?......Page 115
4.2.3 Disorders of
grasping......Page 119
4.2.4 Evidence from
monkeys......Page 125
4.3.1 Is
'visual–spatial agnosia' a myth?......Page 129
4.3.2 Higher level representations of space: a confluence
of the dorsal and ventral streams?......Page 133
4.3.3 Is the right parietal lobe
'dominant' for space?......Page 135
4.4.1 The landmark
task......Page 136
4.4.2 Route
finding......Page 140
4.4.3 Behavioural deficits caused by posterior
parietal lesions......Page 141
4.5 What is the visual function of the parietal
lobe?......Page 142
5.1 Types of
agnosia......Page 144
5.2.1
Pathology......Page 146
5.2.2 The symptoms of visual form
agnosia......Page 148
5.3.1 Deficits in visual
perception......Page 149
5.3.2 Preserved visuomotor
abilities......Page 151
5.3.3.1 The cause of D.F.’s visual form
agnosia......Page 157
5.3.3.2 The mediation of D.F.’s residual visual
abilities......Page 158
5.3.4.2 Limits imposed by the nature of the
response......Page 160
5.3.4.3 Visual cues to orientation available to
D.F.......Page 162
5.3.5 Tricks and
strategies......Page 166
5.4.1
'Transformation agnosia'......Page 168
5.4.2 Topographical
agnosia......Page 170
5.5 'Associative agnosia'
and the left hemisphere......Page 173
5.6.1 Recognition
deficits......Page 174
5.6.2 Spared visuomotor
abilities......Page 177
5.7
Summary......Page 178
6.2 Different frames of reference for
perception and action......Page 180
6.3 Movements to remembered places: a possible
role for perception in the control of action?......Page 188
6.4 Illusory size
distortions......Page 191
6.5 Grasping remembered
objects......Page 194
6.6 Differences between perceptual and
visuomotor memory......Page 197
6.7 Perceptual stability and postural
adjustment......Page 198
6.8 Distance judgements and the calibration
of locomotion......Page 200
6.9
Conclusions......Page 201
7.1 Streams within
streams......Page 204
7.2.1 Attention and
consciousness......Page 205
7.2.2.1 The dorsal
stream......Page 209
7.2.2.2 The ventral
stream......Page 214
7.3.1 Hemispatial
neglect......Page 215
7.3.2 Visual
extinction......Page 221
7.3.3 Directional
hypokinesia......Page 222
7.3.4 Is there a neglect
'syndrome'?......Page 223
7.4 Consciousness and
attention......Page 225
7.5 The integrated action of perceptual and
visuomotor systems......Page 227
8.
Epilogue: twelve years on......Page 230
8.1.1 The functional organization of the ventral
stream......Page 231
8.1.2 The functional organization of the dorsal
stream......Page 238
8.1.3 Mirror neurones: an interaction between
the two streams......Page 242
8.2.1 The roles of the dorsal and ventral streams
in visual awareness......Page 244
8.2.2 Knowledge and
action......Page 251
8.2.3 The role of attention in integrating the two
streams in adaptive behaviour......Page 254
8.3.1 Does the dorsal stream care about
non-target objects?......Page 258
8.3.2 The dorsal stream as an
'automatic pilot'......Page 260
8.4.1 Metrics and frames of
reference......Page 262
8.4.2 Action and
illusion......Page 263
8.4.3 Reaching into the
past......Page 268
8.4.4 Learning new
skills......Page 271
8.5 The
future......Page 274
References......Page 276
Index......Page 318