Middle temporal cortex (V5)

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Middle Temporal Cortex, V5

The middle temporal cortex, also known as visual area 5 (V5) is a region of the extrastriate region within the occipital cortex of the brain. V5 is mainly involved in the perception of motion, globalization of local motion signals, and control of eye movements. This area of the brain is involved in mid-level vision processing. V5 neurons respond to moving stimuli within their visual stream. Neuroscientists Ungerleider and Mishkin proposed two streams of processing involved in visual processing. Based on their studies on primates, they noted two streams of processing involved in visual processing, the ventral stream and dorsal stream. The ventral stream is involved in object recognition and perception while the dorsal stream processes spacial perceptions. The two steams work in collaboration in order to allow humans to process 'what' they are seeing and 'where' its located in their visual streams. V5 is part of the dorsal stream of processing. The dorsal stream travels from the occipital cortex to the parietal lobe. The output signals are relayed through V2 and V3 into V5. The middle temporal cortex then sends signals to different regions in the posterior parietal cortex.