视觉意识及其神经机制

Visual Awareness and Its Neural Mechanism

视觉意识的神经机制是当前认知神经科学研究的热点问题之一。过去普遍认为视觉信息加工主要有两条通路:腹侧通路和背侧通路;而新近的研究表明还存在不经过初级视觉皮层(V1区)的第三条通路。高级视觉皮层、V1区和皮层下结构都对意识觉知的产生起到了相应的作用。已有的实验证据表明,意识的产生过程异常复杂,仍有很多问题值得继续深入讨论和研究。

The neural mechanism of visual awareness has been a hot topic of cognitive neuroscience in the past few decades. It was generally accepted that there were two typical visual pathways for visual information processing： the ventral pathway and the dorsal pathway. Recently a third visual pathway has been identified by some researchers, which transfers visual information from LGN to V5/MT directly and bypasses V1. The superior visual cortex, the primary visual cortex, and some subcortical nucleus are all involved in the generation of visual awareness. Experimental evidences in this field up till now can prove that the neural mechanism of visual awareness is particularly complicated, and needs to be explored more deeply.