A/Prof Marta Garrido (University of Melbourne)

Abstract

Much of what we know about brain circuitry for human vision comes from neuroimaging studies and investigations on people with brain damage. A remarkable example are the studies in blindsight patients, who despite being blind after injury to their primary visual cortex (V1), display remarkable visual abilities. Indeed, blindsight patients can navigate through obstacles, detect motion, and correctly identify emotion in unseen faces. A possible explanation for this apparent paradox is that visual information is conveyed from subcortical structures to other cortical regions, bypassing V1. In this talk, I will present converging evidence from a diverse range of neuroimaging techniques and large data sets, which show this is the case for behavioural salient stimuli charged with motion and emotion information (McFadyen et al., 2019 and Rowe et al., 2023). I propose that the brain circuitry underpinning such residual vision, albeit without awareness, relies on brain shortcuts. These shortcuts may be a means for expediency of information processing and a useful alternative for the preservation and rehabilitation of critical visual functions after brain insult (McFadyen et al., 2021).