A cortical visual processing pathway that runs from the occipital lobe in the primary visual cortex to ventral part of the inferotemporal lobes. Its proposed functions are to consciously processes information about the form (lines, curves, angles), colour, surface texture etc. (i.e., intrinsic properties) of whole objects, and off-line planning to guide action. As such, it judges the significance of these elements in objects (i.e., it ‚atolls‚aa your brain what objects you are viewing). Thus, it sometimes called the ‚abject vision pathway‚aa. All areas in the ventral stream are influence by extra retinal factors, such as attention, stimulus salience and working memory. From caudal to rostral, it consists of the primary visual cortex (V1 in macaque monkeys), secondary visual cortex, V4 (of which there is some uncertainty about its human homologue, but which appears to serve an intermediate, ‘gatekeeping’ function in the ventral visual processing stream of the monkey), and three areas of the infereotemporal cortex. It also has connections with the medial temporal lobe (that stores long-term memories), the limbic system (concerned with the control of emotions) and the dorsal stream. Together with the dorsal stream, it forms part of the influential two-systems hypothesis, in which both are considered to be anatomically and functionally independent.
See Cortical lobes, Common coding, Dorsal visual pathway (or stream), Entorhinal cortex, Inferior parietal lobe (IPL), Inferior temporal cortex (ITC), Limbic system, Occipital-temporal pathway, Occipital cortex (or lobe), Parietal cortex, Primary visual cortex (V1), Temporal lobe, Two visual systems hypothesis, Ventral