Overall, evidence from these studies points to a possible dialogue between different functionally specialized modules during visual perception. Yet, another line of evidence for integration of different streams pertains to the idea that higher order processing areas, such as the motion sensitive visual cortex, receive feed-forward

visual information and send feedback signals fast enough for primary visual cortex to integrate that information into a cohesive representation (Bullier 2001). In this way, areas V1 and V2 act as “blackboards” where information from higher order areas, even as distant as the OFC, is collected and integrated. This is demonstrated by event-related potentials at 50 msec faster in the OFC than Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical in the temporal lobes after the presentation of a visual stimulus (Bar et al. 2006). Thus, the interaction Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical of frontal and visual areas seems instrumental in accomplishing visual tasks, and possibly more so in visual tasks with a cognitive component. From this perspective, the visual system seems to operate globally at first, before beginning to make more local interpretations. The different lines of evidence

for the segregated and integrated models Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical of visual information processing pose an interesting Stem Cells antagonist problem that has relevance to the delicate balance of specialization and integration in brain organization and development. The primary objective of the present fMRI study is to investigate the extent to which modular and Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical network approaches can explain visual information processing in the context of tasks of object recognition and location detection. Neither, if examined in isolation, may provide a complete answer. Our approach focuses on examining activation as well as the functional synchronization of activated brain areas while accomplishing these tasks. We predict specialized areas, such as the dorsal and ventral Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical visual streams, working in concert with each other and with other spatially distant brain areas, such as the frontal

lobe, to solve tasks of object recognition and location detection. Materials and Methods Participants The study consisted of 22 healthy participants (right-handed; mean age, 20.9 years; 15 males and seven females) recruited through the Introduction to Psychology course (PY101) of the Department of Psychology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB). The verbal, performance, and full-scale intelligence quotients (VIQ, PIQ, and FSIQ, respectively) of the Thalidomide participants were measured using The Kaufman Brief Intelligence Test (KBIT-2) (Kaufman and Kaufman 2004). Participants were excluded from the study if they were left-handed, reported any neurological disorders, reported claustrophobia, a body mass index exceeding 34, had metal implants or history of working with metal, kidney disease, diabetes, hypertension, anemia, sickle cell disease, or if they were taking psychotropic medications. All participants completed an informed consent that was approved by the UAB Institutional Review Board.