Mid-level visual processing represents a crucial stage between basic sensory input and higher-level object recognition. The conventional model posits that fundamental visual qualities like color and motion are processed in specialized, retinotopic brain regions (e.g., V4 for color, MT/V5 for motion). Using atlas-based lesion-symptom mapping and disconnectome maps in a cohort of 307 ischemic stroke patients, we examined the neuroanatomical correlates underlying the processing of eight mid-level visual qualities. Contrary to the standard model's predictions, our results did not reveal consistent relationships between processing impairments and damage to traditionally associated brain regions. While we validated our methodology by confirming the established relationship between visual field defects and damage to primary visual areas (V1, V2, and V3), we found no reliable evidence linking processing deficits to specific regions in the posterior brain. These findings challenge the traditional modular view of visual processing and suggest that mid-level visual processing may be more distributed across neural networks than previously thought. This supports alternative models where visual maps represent constellations of co-occurring information rather than specific qualities.
Keywords: half-field defects; retinotopic maps; stroke; symptom-lesion mapping; vision.
© The Author(s) 2025. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Guarantors of Brain.