Search research articles

ABOUT JoVE

Overview Leadership Blog JoVE Help Center

AUTHORS

Publishing Process Editorial Board Scope & Policies Peer Review FAQ Submit

LIBRARIANS

Testimonials Subscriptions Access Resources Library Advisory Board FAQ

RESEARCH

JoVE Journal Methods Collections JoVE Encyclopedia of Experiments Archive

EDUCATION

JoVE Core JoVE Business JoVE Science Education JoVE Lab Manual Faculty Resource Center Faculty Site

Terms & Conditions of Use

Related Concept Videos

Association Areas of the Cortex

Association Areas of the Cortex

Association areas are regions of the cerebral cortex that do not have a specific sensory or motor function. Instead, they integrate and interpret information from various sources to enable higher cognitive processes such as memory, learning, and decision-making. Some key association areas include the following:
Prefrontal Association Area: This area is located in the frontal lobe and is involved in planning, decision-making, and moderating social behavior. It connects with primary motor areas,...

Vision

Vision

Vision is the result of light being detected and transduced into neural signals by the retina of the eye. This information is then further analyzed and interpreted by the brain. First, light enters the front of the eye and is focused by the cornea and lens onto the retina—a thin sheet of neural tissue lining the back of the eye. Because of refraction through the convex lens of the eye, images are projected onto the retina upside-down and reversed.

Visual System

Visual System

Light enters the eye through the cornea, a transparent, dome-shaped surface covering the surface of the eyeball that helps to direct and focus incoming light. This light is then channeled toward the pupil, an adjustable opening whose size is controlled by the iris. The iris, a pigmented muscle, regulates the amount of light entering the eye by contracting or dilating the pupil, thereby ensuring optimal light levels for clear vision.
Once through the pupil, the light passes through the lens, a...

Motor and Sensory Areas of the Cortex

Motor and Sensory Areas of the Cortex

The cerebral cortex, the brain's outermost layer, is pivotal in processing complex cognitive tasks, emotions, and various sensory inputs and executing voluntary motor activities. This intricate structure is divided into three primary functional areas: the motor areas, sensory areas, and association areas.
Motor Areas
The motor areas located in the frontal lobe are central to controlling voluntary movements. This region is further subdivided into the primary motor cortex and the premotor cortex.

Depth Perception and Spatial Vision

Depth Perception and Spatial Vision

Depth perception is the ability to perceive objects three-dimensionally. It relies on two types of cues: binocular and monocular. Binocular cues depend on the combination of images from both eyes and how the eyes work together. Since the eyes are in slightly different positions, each eye captures a slightly different image. This disparity between images, known as binocular disparity, helps the brain interpret depth. When the brain compares these images, it determines the distance to an object.

Somatosensory, Motor, and Association Cortex

Somatosensory, Motor, and Association Cortex

The somatosensory cortex in the parietal lobes is crucial for interpreting sensory data such as touch, temperature, and proprioception. The somatosensory cortex, situated in the parietal lobes, plays a vital role in interpreting sensory information like touch, temperature, and proprioception—awareness of body position. This specialized brain region features an organized structure wherein neurons at the top primarily process sensations originating from the lower body. In contrast, those at the...

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by

Same author

Understanding Navon: Different designs of local-global tasks capture different bias effects.

Attention, perception & psychophysics·2026

Same author

Tracing aesthetic experience from perception and conception to appraisal using deep convolutional neural networks.

iScience·2026

Same author

From pixels to perception: A benchmark for human-like symmetry detection.

Vision research·2026

Same author

Finding Closure: A Closer Look at the Gestalt Law of Closure in Convolutional Neural Networks.

Computational brain & behavior·2026

Same author

Variability and predictability as key factors in a new approach to choreographic complexity in dance.

Cognition·2026

Same author

Rethinking neuroaesthetics: Toward a multidimensional and integrative science of aesthetic experience.

Neuron·2026

Search research articles

Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jun 18, 2026

Investigating Object Representations in the Macaque Dorsal Visual Stream Using Single-unit Recordings

Investigating Object Representations in the Macaque Dorsal Visual Stream Using Single-unit Recordings

Published on: August 1, 2018

Distributed subordinate specificity for bodies, faces, and buildings in human ventral visual cortex.

Hans P Op de Beeck¹, Marijke Brants, Annelies Baeck

¹Laboratory of Experimental Psychology, University of Leuven (K.U.Leuven), Belgium; Laboratory of Biological Psychology, University of Leuven (K.U.Leuven), Leuven, Belgium. Hans.OpdeBeeck@psy.kuleuven.be

|November 20, 2009

Summary

The human visual cortex distinguishes between object categories like faces and buildings. This study found that visual areas also show distributed patterns for subordinate distinctions, such as hands versus torsos.

More Related Videos

Stimulus-specific Cortical Visual Evoked Potential Morphological Patterns

Stimulus-specific Cortical Visual Evoked Potential Morphological Patterns

Published on: May 12, 2019

Perceptual and Category Processing of the Uncanny Valley Hypothesis' Dimension of Human Likeness: Some Methodological Issues

Perceptual and Category Processing of the Uncanny Valley Hypothesis' Dimension of Human Likeness: Some Methodological Issues

Published on: June 3, 2013

Related Experiment Videos

Last Updated: Jun 18, 2026

Investigating Object Representations in the Macaque Dorsal Visual Stream Using Single-unit Recordings

Investigating Object Representations in the Macaque Dorsal Visual Stream Using Single-unit Recordings

Published on: August 1, 2018

Stimulus-specific Cortical Visual Evoked Potential Morphological Patterns

Stimulus-specific Cortical Visual Evoked Potential Morphological Patterns

Published on: May 12, 2019

Perceptual and Category Processing of the Uncanny Valley Hypothesis' Dimension of Human Likeness: Some Methodological Issues

Perceptual and Category Processing of the Uncanny Valley Hypothesis' Dimension of Human Likeness: Some Methodological Issues

Published on: June 3, 2013

Area of Science:

Neuroscience
Cognitive Neuroscience
Visual Perception

Background:

Specific regions in the human visual cortex are known to respond preferentially to categories like faces, bodies, and buildings.
It remains unclear if these category-selective regions also process more detailed, subordinate distinctions within these categories.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate whether the activity patterns within category-selective visual regions reflect subordinate distinctions among objects.
To determine if subordinate specificity is localized or distributed across visual areas.

Main Methods:

Utilized multi-voxel pattern analysis (MVPA) on fMRI data.
Compared brain activity patterns for subordinate distinctions within faces (elderly vs. baby), body parts (hands vs. torsos), and buildings (rural vs. skyscrapers).

Main Results:

MVPA revealed significant differences in activation patterns between hands and torsos.
Smaller, yet significant, differences were found between elderly and baby faces, and between rural and skyscraper buildings.
Subordinate specificity, particularly for hands versus torsos, was distributed across all category-selective regions, irrespective of their preferred category.
This selectivity was preserved across different image exemplars and orientations.

Conclusions:

Category-selective regions in the human visual cortex exhibit distributed subordinate specificity.
The visual system processes subordinate distinctions, like body parts, in a manner that is invariant to image orientation and exemplar, suggesting reliance on higher-order visual properties.