Climbing the cortical ladder from sensation to perception.
A recent study using displays that are ambiguous for motion direction demonstrates that the current perceptual interpretation of such a stimulus is encoded in the highest areas of visual cortex whereas earlier areas encode only its sensory properties. This finding implies that cortical processing pathways perform a transition from a sensory representation to a representation that emphasizes the input's perceptual interpretation and ultimately the organism's behavioral state.
German Primate Center, Kellnerweg 4, 37077 Goettingen, Germany. treue@gwdg.de
Stefan
S
Treue