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- Glossary
Vestibulo-ocular reflex
When we turn our head, our eyes automatically move in the opposite direction. This reflex ensures that a stable image is formed on the retina even when the head moves quickly. This is made possible by the connection between the semicircular canals of the vestibular system and the nerve nuclei of the eye muscles in the brain stem.
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Tectum
A structure in the midbrain consisting of two pairs of mounds, the upper colliculi and the lower colliculi.
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Visual agnosia
Agnosia can be translated as "not recognizing." It refers to deficits in visual perception without blindness. The term was coined by Sigmund Freud. Examples of visual agnosia include prosopagnosia (face agnosia) and object agnosia.
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Visual association cortices
The visual association cortices are the areas that are not involved in primary visual processing but play a major role in the interpretation and integration of visual information. They process, for example, shape, color, movement, or spatial orientation and forward information along the what pathway (ventral) for object recognition and the where/how pathway (dorsal) for spatial processing and action control.\
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Viewpoint invariance
This term refers to a phenomenal ability of our brain: it is able to recognize the same object over and over again – no matter from which angle we view it and largely regardless of how much the object has changed in the meantime.
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Visual cortex
The visual cortex refers to the areas of the occipital lobe that are involved in processing visual information. These include the primary visual cortex and the associative visual cortices V1 to V5. According to Brodmann, the visual cortex comprises areas 17, 18, and 19.
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- Glossary
Visual system
The visual system is the part of the nervous system that processes visual information. It primarily comprises the eye, the optic nerve, the optic chiasm, the optic tract, the lateral geniculate nucleus, the optic radiation, the primary visual cortex, and the visual association cortices.
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Volition
This psychological term describes the cognitive process in which an individual decides on an action and carries it out. In simple terms, volition can also be described as an act of will or the will to initiate action.
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Perception
The term describes the complex process of gathering and processing information from stimuli in the environment and from the internal states of a living being. The brain combines the information, which is perceived partly consciously and partly unconsciously, into a subjectively meaningful overall impression. If the data it receives from the sensory organs is insufficient for this, it supplements it with empirical values. This can lead to misinterpretations and explains why we succumb to optical illusions or fall for magic tricks.
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- Glossary
Ventral pathway
The part of the visual processing pathway that deals with size, shape, color, and ultimately object recognition. The what pathway runs from V1 and V2 to the areas of the temporal lobe.
