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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2016 Apr 1.
Published in final edited form as: Trends Neurosci. 2015 Mar 10;38(4):247–258. doi: 10.1016/j.tins.2015.02.002

Figure 3. Brain pathways for eye movements to unaware visual information.

Figure 3

Two separate but interconnected pathways may mediate visual information for perception (retino-geniculate pathway, red) and eye movements in the absence of awareness (retino-collicular pathway, blue). In the retino-geniculate pathway, the dLGN transmits visual information from retina to V1; V1 then projects to higher-order visual and visual-motor areas in occipital, parietal and frontal cortex as well as to subcortical areas in midbrain and brainstem. The retino-collicular pathway directly connects the retina to the SC and pulvinar, thence to visual cortex, forming a subcortical route that can bypass the dLGN and V1. The dorsal pulvinar connects directly to cortical areas involved in eye movement control, such as frontal eye field (FEF) and lateral intraparietal sulcus (LIP). Structures that are not in the mid sagittal plane are indicated by dotted outlines; area illustration does not correspond to exact anatomical size and location; only feedforward connections are shown and not all areas implicated in oculomotor control are shown.