Abstract

Milner and Goodale propose that the visual system is able to accomodate two distinct functions: vision for action and vision for perception. These functions are proposed to rely respectively on the dorsal and the ventral streams. This functional dissociation emphasizes the output rather than the input side of the visual analysis. Progress in neuroimaging offers various ways to investigate this model. There is now evidence from studies using positron emission tomography on the study of brain activity in the perception of human movement that the roles of the two pathways are more easily understood when considered from the point of view of the output side of visual processing as suggested by Milner and Goodale.