ABSTRACT
The visual system is continually bombarded with stimuli. Not all of these stimuli are of equal significance; some are ignored whereas others elicit a shift of attention and an eye movement. The visual processing preceding such a movement requires analysis of the visual stimulus in terms of three questions: where is it, what is it, and is it behaviorally significant? Recent work has attempted toanalyze several cortical and subcortical visual areas in order to determine their contributions to the visual processing preceding eye movements. We will discuss these questions with reference to the superior colliculus, the striate cortex (area 17), the posterior parietal cortex (area 7), and the frontal visual area (area 8, "the frontal eye fields") of the rhesus monkey.
