Localization and globalization in conscious vision

The primate visual brain consists of many separate, functionally specialized processing systems, each consisting of several apparently hierarchical stages or nodes. The evidence reviewed here leads me to speculate (a) that the processing systems are autonomous with respect to one another, (b) that a...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Annual review of neuroscience 2001-01, Vol.24 (1), p.57-86
Main Author: ZEKI, S
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animals
Biological and medical sciences
Brain - physiology
Brain Mapping
Consciousness - physiology
Eye and associated structures. Visual pathways and centers. Vision
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Humans
Primates
Vertebrates: nervous system and sense organs
Vision, Ocular - physiology
Visual Cortex - physiology
Visual Pathways - physiology
Visual Perception - physiology
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Summary:The primate visual brain consists of many separate, functionally specialized processing systems, each consisting of several apparently hierarchical stages or nodes. The evidence reviewed here leads me to speculate (a) that the processing systems are autonomous with respect to one another, (b) that activity at each node reaches a perceptual end point at a different time, resulting in a perceptual asynchrony in vision, and (c) that, consequently, activity at each node generates a microconsciousness. Visual consciousness is therefore distributed in space and time, with the universal organizing principle of abstraction applied separately within each processing system. The consequence of spatially and temporally distributed microconsciousnesses is that their integration is a multistage, nonhierarchical process that may involve a neural "glue."
ISSN:0147-006X
1545-4126
DOI:10.1146/annurev.neuro.24.1.57