Thursday April 3, 2008
I believe that there are so many different parts of the cortex devoted to the processing of visual information because there is such an extensive amount of information present in our environment which we are processing and assessing all of the time during the hours which we are awake. Being able to recognize specific objects, and consume the visual information around us is essential to navigating and utilizing a person’s environment appropriately and effectively. Because we take in such an extensive amount of varied information through the visual system, it only makes sense that a great deal of our cortex would be devoted to understanding and making use of this information. In addition, there are minuet details of objects in our environment of which we must also be aware and have the ability to process visually because without such survival could be threatened. Such a substantial amount of cortex is devoted to the fovea of the retina, because processing our environment in detail is so crucial. In order, for people to effectively navigate and understand their surroundings, a great deal of cortex needs to be devoted to processing visual information.
