1. The visual pathway
Domina Petric, MD

2. Introduction
Cortical visual processing is commonly thought to proceed along two distinct pathways:
dorsal pathway projecting into parietal cortex
ventral pathway projecting into temporal cortex 

3. Dorsal visual pathway
The dorsal pathway is an occipitoparietal network that lies between early visual cortex and specialized cortical structures involved in:
visually-guided action
somatosensation
spatial audition
navigation
spatial working memory

4. Dorsal visual pathway
The dorsal pathway specializes in capturing arbitrary and dynamic spatiotemporal relationships between multiple items.

5. Ventral visual pathway
It is an occipitotemporal network that bridges the early visual cortex and specialized cortical and subcortical structures involved in various forms of memory and learning, specifically habit formation, emotion, long-term and short-term memory, reward, and value.
These structures are involved in forming specific representations or associations involving stable aspects of visual information.

6. Ventral visual pathway
Processing of object quality:
inclusive term meant to capture the wide variety of stable visual information that can be processed as the basis of these associations
processing of the features or perceptual dimensions (e.g. shape, color, size, brightness) that are available in the information passed to striate cortex from the retina

7. Clustering
One of the most consistent findings regarding the intrinsic function of the occipitotemporal network is the presence of functional clustering in cortex with selectivity for particular object categories:
body parts
faces
scenes
objects
tools
written words
color

8. Major subcortical and cortical output pathways from the occipitotemporal network are:
cortico-subcortical output pathways
occipitotemporo-neostriatal pathway
occipitotemporo-ventral striatum pathway
occipitotempo-amygdaloid pathway
cortico-cortical output pathways
occipitotemporo-medial temporal pathway
occipitotemporo-orbitofrontal pathway
occipitotemporo-ventrolateral prefrontal pathway

10. Literature:
Kravitz DJ, Saleem KS, Baker CI, Ungerleider LG, Mishkin M. The ventral visual pathway: An expanded neural framework for the processing of object quality. Trends in cognitive sciences. 2013;17(1): doi: /j.tics