u04d1 Vision

Locate and read a recent full-text article from the Capella Library about a one aspect of vision (for example, color vision or depth perception). Describe the aspect, the optical and brain structures that acquire and recognize it, and the impact of damage to these structures. Response Guidelines Respond to at least one other learner. Your response is expected to be substantive in nature and to reference the assigned readings, as well as other theoretical, empirical, or professional literature to support your views and writings. Reference your sources using standard APA guidelines. Recent neurophysiological research on a patient suffering from visual form agnosia has led to crucial findings regarding the organization and functional differences between stimulus-driven and memory driven saccades of the ventral and dorsal streams that mediate and analyze visual perception (Rossit et al., 2010). The initial sequence of visual information processing begins with electrical neural impulses that transfer visual field information from the photoreceptors of the retina to the retinal ganglia cells; which process and encode the color and light features of visual information. Visual information is then transmitted and received by the striate cortex, representing the primary region of the visual association cortex, which performs additional encoding operations and subsequently transmits the encoded neural signals to the extrastriate cortex for further detailed and hierarchical processing according to specific characteristics of the visual field (e.g. orientation, movement, spatial frequency, etc.). From the extrastriate cortex, the visual processing cortex divides into two subregions of analysis, the dorsal and ventral streams, which play distinctly different roles in visual processing (Carlson, 2013). The dorsal stream regulates visual information that guides navigational and skilled movements directed towards objects of the visual field (e.g. hand and eye coordination) and the ventral provides information regarding the size, shape, color and texture of the object. Damage to the visual association cortex results in a type of visual defect called visual agnosia (agnosia: failure to know). Visual agnosia refers to an inability to perceive particular categories of visual stimuli, although some details of the visual field may be detected while the individual maintains normal intellectual capacity (Carlson, 2013). Individuals suffering from visual agnosia incur specific impairment to the ventral stream of the visual association cortex, which as mentioned above, processes specific categories of visual stimuli. Severe cases of visual agnosia result in an inability to recognize shapes or orientations of visual stimuli, although aspects of visual processing within the dorsal stream may remain intact. Rossit et al. (2010) investigated a patient (DF) who suffered from visual form agnosia after bilateral damage occurred to the ventro-lateral occipital region, a relatively large region of the

ventral stream of the visual association cortex. As expected, the dorsal stream remained somewhat intact providing DF with normal motor capabilities to reach and grasp for objects in the visual field, yet she seemed severely impaired in her ability to perform delayed actions. Noteworthy is that the ventral stream maintains object characteristics over a longer period of time to preserve the salient visual phenomena of the object for recognition across variable viewing conditions. The dorsal stream controls and guides visual action in real time. Previous research indicated that memory guided saccades involves ventral stream processing which typically retains stimulus characteristics over a longer period of time. This led researchers to investigate the apparent distinctions and dissociation between immediate stimuli driven and delayed memory driven saccades within the ventral stream. The research question for this study was: Does perceptibility of stimuli and memory driven saccades differ in individuals suffering from visual agnosia? The patient DF was a 54 year old woman who suffered from carbon monoxide poisoning which resulted in visual form agnosia. The study compared DF to six other age matched, healthy control subjects (2 male, 4 female) to determine specific abnormalities in stimuli driven and memory driven saccades. Four blocks of three visual stimuli (12 practice trials) involving lines and fixation circles with a nine point calibration and validation grid were presented to test each saccade condition. A modified t test statistical measure was used to differentiate between performances of the control group and DF. Results of the t tests for the memory guided saccades indicated that DFs performance was significantly slower than the age matched control group for left and right target stimuli (t(5) = 2.3, p = .03 and t(5) = 2, p = .05, = .05). However, the t tests for the sacaddic reaction times for immediate stimulus driven conditions indicated no significant statistical difference. Therefore, although previous research confirms that the dorsal stream structures are clearly involved in memory guided saccades, the authors conclude that these structures may not be sufficiently functional to accurately drive memory guided saccades when the ventral stream has been damaged. In conclusion, it was determined that DFs saccadic performance was compromised in memory guided compared to stimulus guided conditions. The authors argue that the visual dorsal stream, which was thought to guide memory guided saccades over longer periods of time, also requires the full functionality of the ventral stream to fulfill its full visual processing capability. This seems to indicate a significant correlation between the ventral and dorsal streams of the visual association cortex regarding memory driven, long term, target object recognition. Anthony Rhodes General Psychology PhD. References Carlson, N. R. (2013). Physiology of behavior (11th ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc. ISBN: 9780205239399.

Rossit, S., Szymanek, L., Butler, S. H., & Harvey, M. (2010). Memory-guided saccade processing in visual form agnosia (patient DF). Experimental Brain Research, 200(1), 109-16. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00221-009-2074-0