Dorsal and ventral streams across sensory modalities

Abstract

Abstract:In this review, we describe the current models of dorsal and ventral streams in vision, audition and touch. Available theories take their first steps from the model of Milner and Goodale, which was developed to explain how human actions can be efficiently carried out using visual information. Since then, similar concepts have also been applied to other sensory modalities. We propose that advances in the knowledge of brain functioning can be achieved through models explaining action and perception patterns independently from sensory modalities.

A neurocognitive model of perceptual decision‐making on emotional signals

“…Lesion and neuroimaging studies are principally equipped with informing models of perceptual decision-making because they aim to reveal underlying brain structures and disclose associated mental processes, an impossible feat for behavioral or physiological experiments (Aue, Lavelle, & Cacioppo, 2009). However, as with biological and psychological models of emotions, current neurocognitive models suffer from a similarly unbalanced focus on the input of perceptual decisionmaking on emotions, namely the type of sensory information that is extracted by the visual and auditory cortices (Belin et al, 2004;Concina, Renna, Grosso, & Sacchetti, 2019;Frühholz, Trost, & Kotz, 2016;Haxby, Hoffman, & Gobbini, 2000;Rauschecker, 2017;Sedda & Scarpina, 2012) and how this information is integrated into a percept (Bernstein & Yovel, 2015;Brück, Kreifelts, & Wildgruber, 2011;Heekeren, Marrett, & Ungerleider, 2008;Schirmer & Adolphs, 2017;Schirmer & Kotz, 2006). So far, less focus has been placed on how higher cognitive functions (e.g., language processes, accessing semantic knowledge) contribute to the formation of a holistic percept and its interpretation within various contexts.…”

“…Finally, perception occurs when the incoming sensory information is made available to higher-order brain regions and matched against a mental template. In the ventral stream, this mental template consists of semantic categorical representations (a prototype of a stimulus, e.g., how a face generally looks like) (Sedda & Scarpina, 2012;Summerfield & Koechlin, 2008;Summerfield et al, 2006;Takahashi, Ohki, & Kim, 2013). In the dorsal stream, the mental template consists of visuomotor and audiomotor sequences potentially stored in our procedural memory (e.g., how emotional expressions and emotional utterances evolve over time) (Goodale, Króliczak, & Westwood, 2005;Goodale & Milner, 1992;Rauschecker, 2011Rauschecker, , 2012.…”

Videogame Based Neglect Rehabilitation: A Role for Spatial Remapping and Multisensory Integration?

“…Remapping of space (Berti and Frassinetti, 2000; Berti et al, 2001; Ansuini et al, 2006) is strongly connected to updating of the body schema representation (Neppi-Modona et al, 2007; Sedda et al, 2013; Mainetti et al, 2013), and may involve an action component which is associated with dorsal stream processing (Neppi Modona et al, 2007; Sedda and Scarpina, 2012). The concepts of near/far space and reaching/locomotion can be can be taken into account as good examples to understand why more exhaustive models that considers the above mentioned concepts are needed.…”

“…The difference between these actions explains why models need to take into account also the concept of dorsal stream. The dorsal stream is devoted to planning and control of actions such as reaching and grasping, that require coordination between fingers, hands, and eyes as well as the computation of object size, their distance from the hand, their position in terms of egocentric coordinates, and in relation to a dynamic world in which targets and obstacles are moving (Sedda and Scarpina, 2012). Not all these features are considered in locomotion planning: for instance, object's size is not processed when planning to walk.…”

“…One may speculate further that the multisensory integration facilitated by the immediate feedback provided by seeing one owns upper limb reflected in the far space while reaching objects, might facilitate the spatial remapping between far and near space through the updating of the body schema, which is strongly dependent on multisensory integration (Aglioti et al, 1996; Iriki et al, 1996; Berti and Frassinetti, 2000; Farne and Ladavas, 2000; Neppi-Modona et al, 2007; Sedda and Scarpina, 2012). Body schema refers to a dynamic representation of body parts in space, continuously updated during movement, distinct from the conscious and semantic description of the body that we can reach through awareness (Berlucchi and Aglioti, 2010).…”