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.
Read more about Visual Cortex: Introduction, Primary Visual Cortex (V1), V2, Third Visual Complex, Including Area V3, V4, V5/MT
Famous quotes containing the word visual:
“Unlike any other visual image, a photograph is not a rendering, an imitation or an interpretation of its subject, but actually a trace of it. No painting or drawing, however naturalist, belongs to its subject in the way that a photograph does.”
—John Berger (b. 1926)