Somatotopically organized maps of near visual space exist

Author
Publication Year
1992

Type

Journal Article
Abstract

Dr. Stein begins by claiming "very little evidence has been found for the existence of a topographic map of perceptual space" and ends by stating that "indeed there is no evidence for a region...where egocentric space is represented topographically."  In lieu of a map, he offers us a "neural network," that is,  "a distributed system of rules for information processing that can be used to transform signals from one coordinate system to another."  Such a computational scheme might indeed work; however, it is quite unnecessary since a neuronal topographic map of visual space does exist, at least for the region adjacent to the body, i.e. immediate extrapersonal space.  As there is good evidence for more than one such map in the primate brain the question would seem to be what are their different functions rather than how can we erect a computational network to do without them.

Journal
Behavioral Brain Sciences
Volume
15
Issue
4
Pages
750
Documents