Que se necesita para ver ?

Clulas X: ms numerosas 55% 10 a 15 micras trasmiten imagen visual y el color

Clulas Y: 5% 35 micras movimiento o variaciones intensidad luz

Otras conexiones de las vas visuales desde los tractos pticos

1.- Hasta los ncleos supraquiasmaticos del hipotlamo para regular el ciclo circadiano 2.- Hacia los ncleos pretectales para enfocar los objetos y activar el reflejo fotomotor pupilar 3.- Hacia el colculo superior ambos ojos para direccionar los movimientos rpidos de

4.- Hacia ncleo geniculado lateral ventral del tlamo para regular algunas funciones conductuales

Funciones del cuerpo geniculado lateral

1.-Estacin de relevo entre el tracto ptico y la corteza visual a travs de las radiaciones pticas

2.- Esta compuesto por seis capas: la II,III,V reciben las fibras de la retina temporal del mismo lado y las capas I,IV,VI de la retina nasal del ojo contralateral 3.- Caracter inhibidor que realza la informacin visual a traves de fibras reticulares del mecencfalo

corticofugas que vuelven de la corteza vi

Divisin del cuerpo geniculado lateral

1.- Las capas I y II tienen clulas magnocelulares reciben conexiones de las clulas ganglionares Y, tiene conduccin rpida y trasmite informacin en blanco y negro 2.- Las capas III a VI se denominan parvocelulares, reciben conexiones de las clulas ganglionares tipo X, trasmite el color pero tienen conduccin lenta

La corteza visual primaria es responsable de procesar la informacin visual, esta localizada en el lbulo occipital en la parte posterior del cerebro. Tambin se lo conoce como corteza estriada o V1 y a la corteza visual secundaria o corteza extraestriada como V2, V3, V4 y V5. Otro nombre de la corteza visual primaria es rea 17 de Brodman y la corteza visual secundaria son las reas 18 y 19 de Brodman.The primary visual cortex is anatomically equivalent to Brodmann area 17, or BA17. El hemisferio izquierdo del cortex visual recibe informacin del campo visual derecho y el cortez visual del hemisferio derecho del campo visual izquierdo.

 La ruta dorsal comienza con V1 cruza a travs del Area visual V2, luego por la Area dorsomedial y el Area visual MT (Tambin conocida como V5) y llega a la Corteza parietal posterior. La Franja dorsal es llamada a menudo como la "Ruta dnde" o "Ruta cmo", est asociada al movimiento, representacin de objetos locaciones, y control de los ojos y brazos, especialmente cuando la informacin visual es usada para guiar sacadas o alcance.1 la Ruta ventral comienza en V1, va a travs del Area visual V2, luego a travs del Area visual V4, y a la Corteza temporal inferior. La franja ventral es llamada a menudo como la "Ruta qu", est asociada a la forma reconocimiento y representacin del objeto, tambin est asociada con el almacenamiento de la Memoria de Largo trmino.

The second is the dorsal pathway, which projects to the parietal lobe and appears to be essential for locating objects

The first is the ventral pathway, which extends to the temporal lobe and is thought to be involved in recognizing objects.

Corteza visual primaria

codifica tamao, orientacin, movimiento, disparidad binocular de las imgenes contiene un mapa del hemicampovisual contralateral

Organizacin de la corteza visual primaria en sistemas funcionales

Adems del circuito de capas, las clulas de la corteza visual primaria se organizan en sistemas funcionales orientados verticalmente. Estos sistemas son tres:
Columnas especficas para la orientacin

Manchas
Columnas de predominio ocular

Columnas especficas para la orientacin

Las columnas especficas para la orientacin estn formadas por clulas simples y complejas que descomponen los perfiles de la imagen visual en segmentos lineales cortos de diferentes orientaciones. Las clulas simples aquellas que responden mejor a barras de luz que tengan una orientacin especfica, es decir, una clula que responde mejor a una barra vertical no responder, o lo har slo dbilmente, a una barra horizontal o incluso oblicua. Los campos receptivos de las clulas complejas de la corteza suelen ser mayores que los de las clulas simples, y su respuesta depende tambin de la orientacin de estmulos, pero an ms de su posicin.

La convergencia progresiva logra cierta abstraccin de las caractersticas Cada clula compleja controla la actividad de un grupo de clulas simples. Cada clula simple controla la actividad de un grupo de clulas geniculadas, y cada clula geniculada controla la actividad de un grupo de clulas ganglionares de la retina. En cada nivel de la via aferente las propiedades del estmulo activador de la clula son cada vez ms complejos. Las neuronas ganglionares y las del ncleo geniculado lateral responden sobre todo al contraste. Cuando sta informacin llega a las clulas simples y complejas stas decomponen la informacin y la convierten en segmentos lineales relativamente precisos, con sus correspondientes bordes, generando la informacin del contorno de la imagen. La informacin procedente de los bordes es la que nos permite reconocer fcilmente los objetos del campo visual

El cortex visual primario esta dividido en seis capas funcionalmente distintas, la capa 4 recibe la mayora de la informacin visual del cuerpo geniculado lateral y se divide en 4 capas, llamadas 4A, 4B, 4C, and 4C. La capa 4C recibe los impulsos de las magnocelulares o clulas Y, y la capa 4C recibe el impulso de las parvocelulares o clulas X.

responde a mitad inferior del campo visual

responde a mitad superior del campo visual

Manchas
Son regiones celulares con forma de tachuela prominentes en las capas 2 y 3 de la corteza visual primaria. Las clulas de las manchas suelen responder a los distintos estmulos de color.

Columnas de predominio ocular Constituyen un conjunto ordenado de clulas que reciben aferencias procedentes nicamente del ojo derecho o del izquierdo, y son importantes en la interaccin binocular (paso necesario para la percepcin de la profundidad).

Hipercolumnas Es un conjunto de columnas que responde a lneas de todas las orientaciones situadas en una regin concreta del espacio. Estas hipercolumnas estn formadas por la integracin de los tres sistemas funcionales descritos: columnas de orientacin, columnas de predominio ocular y manchas. Dentro de cada mdulo se lleva a cabo el procesamiento de toda la informacin del mundo visual que le corresponde. Lo que incluye la orientacin, la interaccin binocular, el color y el movimiento. Estos sistemas orientados verticalmente se comunican unos con otros por medio de conexiones horizontales que relacionan entre s las clulas dentro de cada capa. Parece ser que estas hipercolumnas actan como mdulos elementales de computacin: reciben diversos impulsos aferentes, los transforman, y envan sus impulsos eferentes a varias regiones del encfalo.

Movimientos oculares y su control

control cortical del aparato oculomotor

control cortical del aparato oculo motor ncleos pretectales

cortex visual

colculo superior

III

IV

VI

Movimientos oculares constantes

temblor continuo
traslacin lenta movimientos de sacudida

Movimientos oculares de fijacin

Mecanismo voluntario de fijacin

Mecanismo involuntario de fijacin

Propiedades de la luz absorcin reflexin refraccin

Absorcin de la luz

Reflexin de la luz

Indice de refraccin IR:

velocidad de la luz en el aire 300000 km/seg

= 1,5
velocidad de la luz en un medio transparente 200000 km/seg

300000 km/seg

200000 km/seg

aire

vidrio

FO

Grado de refraccin
angulacin entre la interfase y el frente de onda
frente de onda

IR

punto focal
lnea focal distancia focal

DEFECTOS REFRACTIVOS

emtrope

DEFECTOS REFRACTIVOS

emtrope

Lentes -3.00 0,0 -3.00

-3.00
esfrico
miopa hipermetropa

-3.00
cilndrico
astigmatismo simple

-6.00 esferocilindrico
astigmatismo compuesto

Astigmatism often occurs along with nearsightedness or farsightedness. With astigmatism, light entering the eye from different directions is focused different amounts. For example, light entering vertically (from 12 o'clock to 6 o'clock) may be focused more than light entering horizontally (from 9 o'clock to 3 o'clock). In an eye without astigmatism, light is focused the same amount in each axis. The net result of astigmatism is blurred vision. Often letters appear slanted or have tails. Sometimes, the affected eye sees double. In practical terms, astigmatism is treated similarly to nearsightedness and farsightedness, but with different amounts of treatment on each axis.

Acomodacin

Profundidad de foco

Fucin de la retina

Vas visuales y corteza visual

Visible light has wavelength in a range from about 380 nanometres to about 740 nm

The visual cortex of the brain is the part of the cerebral cortex responsible for processing visual information. It is located in the occipital lobe, in the back of the brain. The term visual cortex refers to the primary visual cortex (also known as striate cortex or V1) and extrastriate visual cortical areas such as V2, V3, V4, and V5. The primary visual cortex is anatomically equivalent to Brodmann area 17, or BA17. The extrastriate cortical areas consist of Brodmann area 18 and Brodmann area 19. There is a visual cortex in each hemisphere of the brain. The left hemisphere visual cortex receives signals from the right visual field and the right visual cortex from the left visual field. The body of this article describes the primate (especially, human) visual cortex.

The primary visual cortex is the best studied visual area in the brain. In all mammals studied, it is located in the posterior pole of the occipital cortex (the occipital cortex is responsible for processing visual stimuli). It is the simplest, earliest cortical visual area. It is highly specialized for processing information about static and moving objects and is excellent in pattern recognition. The functionally defined primary visual cortex is approximately equivalent to the anatomically defined striate cortex. The name "striate cortex" is derived from the stria of Gennari, a distinctive stripe visible to the naked eye that represents myelinated axons from the lateral geniculate body terminating in layer 4 of the gray matter. The primary visual cortex is divided into six functionally distinct layers, labeled 1 through 6. Layer 4, which receives most visual input from the lateral geniculate nucleus (LGN), is further divided into 4 layers, labelled 4A, 4B, 4C, and 4C. Sublamina 4C receives most magnocellular input from the LGN, while layer 4C receives input from parvocellular pathways. The average number of neurons in the adult human primary visual cortex, in each hemisphere, has been estimated at around 140 million (Leuba & Kraftsik, Anatomy and Embryology, 1994).

Hyperopia is more commonly referred to as farsightedness and is the opposite of myopia. Those who are farsighted have difficulty focusing on distant objects and are even blurrier up close. A cornea that is too flat or an eye that is too short results in farsightedness. These conditions cause the light rays to focus at a point behind the retina. When a laser is used to correct hyperopia, it gently steepens the contour of the cornea, which increases its focusing power and causes the light to come into focus directly on the retina.

Often referred to as nearsightedness, myopia is the most common focusing problem. Myopic individuals can see near objects clearly but have difficulty seeing far away. Myopia results when light rays focus in front of the retina. The cause is often a cornea with too much curvature (i.e., too much focusing power) or an eye that is too long. When a laser is used to treat myopia, it gently flattens the contour of the cornea, which lessens its focusing power and allows light to focus farther back, directly on the retina.

The speed of light in a vacuum is defined to be exactly 299,792,458 m/s (approximately 186,282 miles per second). The fixed value of the speed of light in SI units results from the fact that the metre is now defined in terms of the speed of light.

Chromatic aberration
Chromatic aberration is caused by the dispersion of the lens materialthe variation of its refractive index, n, with the wavelength of light. Since, from the formulae above, f is dependent upon n, it follows that different wavelengths of light will be focused to different positions. Chromatic aberration of a lens is seen as fringes of colour around the image. It can be minimised by using an achromatic doublet (or achromat) in which two materials with differing dispersion are bonded together to form a single lens. This reduces the amount of chromatic aberration over a certain range of wavelengths, though it does not produce perfect correction. The use of achromats was an important step in the development of the optical microscope. An apochromat is a lens or lens system which has even better correction of chromatic aberration, combined with improved correction of spherical aberration. Apochromats are much more expensive than achromats. Different lens materials may also be used to minimise chromatic aberration, such as specialised coatings or lenses made from the crystal fluorite. This naturally occurring substance has the highest known Abbe number, indicating that the material has low dispersion.

The indices of refraction of some common substances are given below with a more complete description of the indices for optical glasses given elsewhere. The values given are approximate and do not account for the small variation of index with light wavelength which is called dispersion. Refraction and the eye

Luz: radiacin electromagntica visible para el ojo humano, responsable del sentido de la visin
Light, which is emitted and absorbed in tiny "packets" called photons exhibits properties of both waves and particles

Amacrine cells are interneurons in the retina. Amacrine cells are responsible for 70% of input to retinal ganglion cells. Bipolar cells, which are responsible for the other 30% of input to retinal ganglia, are regulated by amacrine cells.
Relatively little is known of the functional roles of the amacrine cells. Amacrine cells with extensive dendritic trees are thought to contribute to inhibitory surrounds by feedback at both the bipolar cell, and ganglion cell levels. In this role they are considered to supplement the action of the horizontal cells. Amacrine cells give much more input to M (Magnocellular) ganglion cells than to P (Parvocellular) ganglion cells.

Other forms of amacrine cell are likely to play modulatory roles, allowing adjustment of sensitivity for photopic and scotopic vision. The AII amacrine cell (also known as the Rod amacrine cell) is a mediator of signals from rod cells under scotopic conditions.

Horizontal cells are the laterally interconnecting neurons in the outer plexiform layer of the retina of mammalian eyes. They help integrate and regulate the input from multiple photoreceptor cells. Among their functions, horizontal cells are responsible for allowing eyes to adjust to see well under both bright and dim light conditions.

Horizontal cells are the laterally interconnecting neurons in the outer plexiform layer of the retina of mammalian eyes. They help integrate and regulate the input from multiple photoreceptor cells. Among their functions, horizontal cells are responsible for allowing eyes to adjust to see well under both bright and dim light condition

Spherical aberration
Spherical aberration occurs because spherical surfaces are not the ideal shape with which to make a lens, but they are by far the simplest shape to which glass can be ground and polished and so are often used. Spherical aberration causes beams parallel to, but distant from, the lens axis to be focused in a slightly different place than beams close to the axis. This manifests itself as a blurring of the image. Lenses in which closer-to-ideal, non-spherical surfaces are used are called aspheric lenses. These were formerly complex to make and often extremely expensive, but advances in technology have greatly reduced the manufacturing cost for such lenses. Spherical aberration can be minimised by careful choice of the curvature of the surfaces for a particular application: for instance, a plano-convex lens which is used to focus a collimated beam produces a sharper focal spot when used with the convex side towards the beam source.

Coma
Another type of aberration is coma, which derives its name from the comet-like appearance of the aberrated image. Coma occurs when an object off the optical axis of the lens is imaged, where rays pass through the lens at an angle to the axis . Rays which pass through the centre of the lens of focal length f are focused at a point with distance f tan from the axis. Rays passing through the outer margins of the lens are focused at different points, either further from the axis (positive coma) or closer to the axis (negative coma). In general, a bundle of parallel rays passing through the lens at a fixed distance from the centre of the lens are focused to a ringshaped image in the focal plane, known as a comatic circle. The sum of all these circles results in a V-shaped or comet-like flare. As with spherical aberration, coma can be minimised (and in some cases eliminated) by choosing the curvature of the two lens surfaces to match the application. Lenses in which both spherical aberration and coma are minimised are called bestform lenses.

Reflections
Main article: Reflection (physics)
Diagram of specular reflection

Reflections can be divided into two types: specular reflection and diffuse reflection. Specular reflection describes the gloss of surfaces such as mirrors, which reflect light in a simple, predictable way. This allows for production of reflected images that can be associated with an actual (real) or extrapolated (virtual) location in space. Diffuse reflection describes opaque, non limpid materials, such as paper or rock. The reflections from these surfaces can only be described statistically, with the exact distribution of the reflected light depending on the microscopic structure of the material. Many diffuse reflectors are described or can be approximated by Lambert's cosine law, which describes surfaces that have equal luminance when viewed from any angle. Glossy surfaces can give both specular and diffuse reflection. In specular reflection, the direction of the reflected ray is determined by the angle the incident ray makes with the surface normal, a line perpendicular to the surface at the point where the ray hits. The incident and reflected rays and the normal lie in a single plane, and the angle between the reflected ray and the surface normal is the same as that between the incident ray and the normal.[40] This is known as the Law of Reflection. For flat mirrors, the law of reflection implies that images of objects are upright and the same distance behind the mirror as the objects are in front of the mirror. The image size is the same as the object size. The law also implies that mirror images are parity inverted, which we perceive as a left-right inversion. Images formed from reflection in two (or any even number of) mirrors are not parity inverted. Corner reflectors[40] retroreflect light, producing reflected rays that travel back in the direction from which the incident rays came. Mirrors with curved surfaces can be modeled by ray-tracing and using the law of reflection at each point on the surface. For mirrors with parabolic surfaces, parallel rays incident on the mirror produce reflected rays that converge at a common focus. Other curved surfaces may also focus light, but with aberrations due to the diverging shape causing the focus to be smeared out in space. In particular, spherical mirrors exhibit spherical aberration. Curved mirrors can form images with magnification greater than or less than one, and the magnification can be negative, indicating that the image is inverted. An upright image formed by reflection in a mirror is always virtual, while an inverted image is real and can be projected onto a screen.

V1 has a very well-defined map of the spatial information in vision. For example, in humans the upper bank of the calcarine sulcus responds strongly to the lower half of visual field (below the center), and the lower bank of the calcarine to the upper half of visual field. Conceptually, this retinotopic mapping is a transformation of the visual image from retina to V1. The correspondence between a given location in V1 and in the subjective visual field is very precise: even the blind spots are mapped into V1. Evolutionarily, this correspondence is very basic and found in most animals that possess a V1. In human and animals with a fovea in the retina, a large portion of V1 is mapped to the small, central portion of visual field, a phenomenon known as cortical magnification. Perhaps for the purpose of accurate spatial encoding, neurons in V1 have the smallest receptive field size of any visual cortex microscopic regions. The tuning properties of V1 neurons (what the neurons respond to) differ greatly over time. Early in time (40 ms and further) individual V1 neurons have strong tuning to a small set of stimuli. That is, the neuronal responses can discriminate small changes in visual orientations, spatial frequencies and colors. Furthermore, individual V1 neurons in human and animals with binocular vision have ocular dominance, namely tuning to one of the two eyes. In V1, and primary sensory cortex in general, neurons with similar tuning properties tend to cluster together as cortical columns. David Hubel and Torsten Wiesel proposed the classic icecube organization model of cortical columns for two tuning properties: ocular dominance and orientation. However, this model cannot accommodate the color, spatial frequency and many other features to which neurons are tuned [citation needed]. The exact organization of all these cortical columns within V1 remains a hot topic of current research. Current consensus seems to be that early responses of V1 neurons consists of tiled sets of selective spatiotemporal filters. In the spatial domain, the functioning of V1 can be thought of as similar to many spatially local, complex Fourier transforms, or more accurately, Gabor transforms. Theoretically, these filters together can carry out neuronal processing of spatial frequency, orientation, motion, direction, speed (thus temporal frequency), and many other spatiotemporal features. Experiments of neurons substantiate these theories, but also raise new questions. Later in time (after 100 ms) neurons in V1 are also sensitive to the more global organisation of the scene (Lamme & Roelfsema, 2000). These response properties probably stem from recurrent processing (the influence of higher-tier cortical areas on lower-tier cortical areas) and lateral connections from pyramidal neurons (Hupe et al. 1998). While feedforward connections are mainly driving, feedback connections are mostly modulatory in their effects (Angelucci et al., 2003; Hupe et al., 2001). Evidence shows that feedback originating in higher level areas such as V4, IT or MT, with bigger and more complex receptive fields, can modify and shape V1 responses, accounting for contextual or extra-classical receptive field effects (Guo et al., 2007; Huang et al., 2007; Sillito et al., 2006). The visual information relayed to V1 is not coded in terms of spatial (or optical) imagery, but rather as the local contrast. As an example, for an image comprising half side black and half side white, the divide line between black and white has strongest local contrast and is encoded, while few neurons code the brightness information (black or white per se). As information is further relayed to subsequent visual areas, it is coded as increasingly non-local frequency/phase signals. Importantly, at these early stages of cortical visual processing, spatial location of visual information is well preserved amid the local contrast encoding.

The primary visual cortex, V1, is the koniocortex (sensory type) located in and around the calcarine fissure in the occipital lobe. Each hemisphere's V1 receives information directly from its ipsilateral lateral geniculate nucleus. Each V1 transmits information to two primary pathways, called the dorsal stream and the ventral stream: The dorsal stream begins with V1, goes through Visual area V2, then to the dorsomedial area and Visual area MT (also known as V5) and to the posterior parietal cortex. The dorsal stream, sometimes called the "Where Pathway" or "How Pathway", is associated with motion, representation of object locations, and control of the eyes and arms, especially when visual information is used to guide saccades or reaching.[1]

The ventral stream begins with V1, goes through visual area V2, then through visual area V4, and to the inferior temporal cortex. The ventral stream, sometimes called the "What Pathway", is associated with form recognition and object representation. It is also associated with storage of long-term memory. The dichotomy of the dorsal/ventral pathways (also called the "where/what" or "action/perception" streams) [1] was first defined by Ungerleider and Mishkin [2] and is still contentious among vision scientists and psychologists. It is probably an over-simplification of the true state of affairs in the visual cortex. It is based on the findings that visual illusions such as the Ebbinghaus illusion may distort judgements of a perceptual nature, but when the subject responds with an action, such as grasping, no distortion occurs. However, recent work [3] suggests that both the action and perception systems are equally fooled by such illusions. Neurons in the visual cortex fire action potentials when visual stimuli appear within their receptive field. By definition, the receptive field is the region within the entire visual field which elicits an action potential. But for any given neuron, it may respond best to a subset of stimuli within its receptive field. This property is called neuronal tuning. In the earlier visual areas, neurons have simpler tuning. For example, a neuron in V1 may fire to any vertical stimulus in its receptive field. In the higher visual areas, neurons have complex tuning. For example, in the inferior temporal cortex (IT), a neuron may only fire when a certain face appears in its receptive field. The visual cortex receives its blood supply primarily from the calcarine branch of the posterior cerebral artery.

Visual area V2, also called prestriate cortex,[4] is the second major area in the visual cortex, and the first region within the visual association area. It receives strong feedforward connections from V1 (direct and via the pulvinar) and sends strong connections to V3, V4, and V5. It also sends strong feedback connections to V1. Anatomically, V2 is split into four quadrants, a dorsal and ventral representation in the left and the right hemispheres. Together these four regions provide a complete map of the visual world. Functionally, V2 has many properties in common with V1. Cells are tuned to simple properties such as orientation, spatial frequency, and color. The responses of many V2 neurons are also modulated by more complex properties, such as the orientation of illusory contours and whether the stimulus is part of the figure or the ground (Qiu and von der Heydt, 2005). Recent research has shown that V2 cells show a small amount of attentional modulation (more than V1, less than V4), are tuned for moderately complex patterns, and may be driven by multiple orientations at different subregions within a single receptive field. It is argued that the entire ventral visual-to-hippocampal stream is important for visual memory.[5] This theory, unlike the dominant one, predicts that object-recognition memory (ORM) alterations could result from the manipulation in V2, an area that is highly interconnected within the ventral stream of visual cortices. In the monkey brain, this area receives strong feedforward connections from the primary visual cortex (V1) and sends strong projections to other secondary visual cortices (V3, V4, and V5).[6][7] Most of the neurons of this area are tuned to simple visual characteristics such as orientation, spatial frequency, size, color, and shape.[8][9][10] V2 cells also respond to various complex shape characteristics, such as the orientation of illusory contours[10] and whether the stimulus is part of the figure or the ground.[11] Anatomical studies implicate layer 3 of area V2 in visual-information processing. In contrast to layer 3, layer 6 of the visual cortex is composed of many types of neurons, and their response to visual stimuli is more complex. In a recent study, the Layer 6 cells of the V2 cortex were found to play a very important role in the storage of Object Recognition Memory as well as the conversion of short-term object memories into long-term memories.[12]

The term third visual complex refers to the region of cortex located immediately in front of V2, which includes the region named visual area V3 in humans. The "complex" nomenclature is justified by the fact that some controversy still exists regarding the exact extent of area V3, with some researchers proposing that the cortex located in front of V2 may include two or three functional subdivisions. For example, David Van Essen and others (1986) have proposed the existence of a "dorsal V3" in the upper part of the cerebral hemisphere, which is distinct from the "ventral V3" (or ventral posterior area, VP) located in the lower part of the brain. Dorsal and ventral V3 have distinct connections with other parts of the brain, appear different in sections stained with a variety of methods, and contain neurons that respond to different combinations of visual stimulus (for example, colour-selective neurons are more common in the ventral V3). Additional subdivisions, including V3A and V3B have also been reported in humans. These subdivisions are located near dorsal V3, but do not adjoin V2. Dorsal V3 is normally considered to be part of the dorsal stream, receiving inputs from V2 and from the primary visual area and projecting to the posterior parietal cortex. It may be anatomically located in Brodmann area 19. Recent work with fMRI has suggested that area V3/V3A may play a role in the processing of global motion [13] Other studies prefer to consider dorsal V3 as part of a larger area, named the dorsomedial area (DM), which contains a representation of the entire visual field. Neurons in area DM respond to coherent motion of large patterns covering extensive portions of the visual field (Lui and collaborators, 2006). Ventral V3 (VP), has much weaker connections from the primary visual area, and stronger connections with the inferior temporal cortex. While earlier studies proposed that VP only contained a representation of the upper part of the visual field (above the point of fixation), more recent work indicates that this area is more extensive than previously appreciated, and like other visual areas it may contain a complete visual representation. The revised, more extensive VP is referred to as the ventrolateral posterior area (VLP) by Rosa and Tweedale. [14]

Visual area V4 is one of the visual areas in the extrastriate visual cortex. In macaques, it is located anterior to V2 and posterior to posterior inferotemporal area (PIT). It comprises at least four regions (left and right V4d, left and right V4v), and some groups report that it contains rostral and caudal subdivisions as well. It is unknown what the human homologue of V4 is, and this issue is currently the subject of much scrutiny. [15]
V4 is the third cortical area in the ventral stream, receiving strong feedforward input from V2 and sending strong connections to the PIT. It also receives direct inputs from V1, especially for central space. In addition, it has weaker connections to V5 and dorsal prelunate gyrus (DP). V4 is the first area in the ventral stream to show strong attentional modulation. Most studies indicate that selective attention can change firing rates in V4 by about 20%. A seminal paper by Moran and Desimone characterizing these effects was the first paper to find attention effects anywhere in the visual cortex [1].[16] Like V1, V4 is tuned for orientation, spatial frequency, and color. Unlike V1, V4 is tuned for object features of intermediate complexity, like simple geometric shapes, although no one has developed a full parametric description of the tuning space for V4. Visual area V4 is not tuned for complex objects such as faces, as areas in the inferotemporal cortex are. The firing properties of V4 were first described by Semir Zeki in the late 1970s, who also named the area. Before that, V4 was known by its anatomical description, the prelunate gyrus. Originally, Zeki argued that the purpose of V4 was to process color information. Work in the early 1980s proved that V4 was as directly involved in form recognition as earlier cortical areas. This research supported the Two Streams hypothesis, first presented by Ungerleider and Mishkin in 1982. Recent work has shown that V4 exhibits long-term plasticity, encodes stimulus salience, is gated by signals coming from the frontal eye fields and shows changes in the spatial profile of its receptive fields with attention.

Visual area V5, also known as visual area MT (middle temporal), is a region of extrastriate visual cortex that is thought to play a major role in the percepti of motion, the integration of local motion signals into global percepts and the guidance of some eye movements.[17]