Nathan Kline Institute for Psychiatric Research, Orangeburg, NY, USA.
Department of Neurosciences, University of California, San Diego La Jolla, CA, USA.
Adv Neurobiol. 2024;40:757-799. doi: 10.1007/978-3-031-69491-2_25.
The human visual system begins in the retina and projects to cortex through both the thalamocortical and retinotectal visual pathways. The thalamocortical system is divided into separate magnocellular and parvocellular divisions, which engage separate layers of the lateral geniculate nucleus (LGN) and project preferentially to the dorsal and ventral visual streams, respectively. The retinotectal system, in contrast, projects to the superior colliculus, pulvinar nucleus of the thalamus and amygdala. The pulvinar nucleus also plays a critical role in the integration of information processing across early visual regions.The functions of the visual system can be assessed using convergent EEG- and functional brain imaging approaches, increasingly supplemented by simultaneously collected eye-tracking information. These approaches may be used for tracing the flow of information from retina through early visual regions, as well as the contribution of these regions to higher-order cognitive processing. A pathway of increasing interest in relationship to neuropsychiatric disorders is the primate-specific "third visual pathway" that relies extensively on motion-related input and contributes preferentially to social information processing. Thus, disturbances in the brain's responsiveness to motion stimuli may be especially useful as biomarkers for early visual dysfunction related to impaired social cognition.Visual event-related potentials (ERPs) can be collected with high-fidelity and have proven effective for the study of neuropsychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia and Alzheimer's disease, in which alterations in visual processing may occur early in the disorder, andautism-spectrum disorder (ASD), in which abnormal persistence of early childhood patterns may persist into adulthood, leading to impaired functioning of visual social pathways. The utility of visual ERPs as biomarkers for larger clinical studies is limited at present by the need for standardization of visual stimuli across laboratories, which requires specialized protocols and equipment. The development of optimized stimulation protocols as well as newer headset-based systems may increase the clinical utility of present stimulation approaches.
人类视觉系统始于视网膜，并通过视丘脑和视顶盖视觉通路投射到大脑皮层。视丘脑系统分为单独的大细胞和小细胞分部，分别与外侧膝状体核（LGN）的不同层连接，并分别优先投射到背侧和腹侧视觉流。相比之下，视顶盖系统投射到上丘、丘脑的丘脑枕核和杏仁核。丘脑枕核在早期视觉区域信息处理的整合中也起着关键作用。视觉系统的功能可以通过会聚的 EEG 和功能脑成像方法来评估，越来越多地补充同时收集的眼动追踪信息。这些方法可用于追踪信息从视网膜通过早期视觉区域的流动，以及这些区域对高级认知处理的贡献。与神经精神障碍相关的一条越来越受到关注的途径是灵长类特有的“第三视觉途径”，它广泛依赖于与运动相关的输入，并优先促进社会信息处理。因此，大脑对运动刺激的反应障碍可能特别有用，可作为与受损社会认知相关的早期视觉功能障碍的生物标志物。视觉事件相关电位（ERPs）可以以高保真度进行采集，并且已被证明对神经精神障碍的研究有效，例如精神分裂症和阿尔茨海默病，其中视觉处理的改变可能在疾病早期发生，以及自闭症谱系障碍（ASD），其中幼儿期模式的异常持续可能持续到成年期，导致视觉社交途径的功能受损。目前，视觉 ERPs 作为更大的临床研究的生物标志物的效用受到限制，因为需要跨实验室标准化视觉刺激，这需要专门的协议和设备。优化刺激协议以及更新的基于耳机的系统的开发可能会增加现有刺激方法的临床实用性。
