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Updated: May 29, 2026

Using Looming Visual Stimuli to Evaluate Mouse Vision
Published on: June 13, 2019
On the usefulness of 'what' and 'where' pathways in vision
Edward H F de Haan1, Alan Cowey
1Department of Psychology and Cognitive Science Center Amsterdam, University of Amsterdam, Roetersstraat 15, 1018 WB, The Netherlands. e.h.f.dehaan@uva.n
Abstract:
The primate visual brain is classically portrayed as a large number of separate 'maps', each dedicated to the processing of specific visual cues, such as colour, motion or faces and their many features. In order to understand this fractionated architecture, the concept of cortical 'pathways' or 'streams' was introduced. In the currently prevailing view, the different maps are organised hierarchically into two major pathways, one involved in recognition and memory (the ventral stream or 'what' pathway) and the other in the programming of action (the dorsal stream or 'where' pathway). In this review, we question this heuristically influential but potentially misleading linear hierarchical pathway model and argue instead for a 'patchwork' or network model.
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