Visual Processing
What is it, and how does it relate to cognition?
A quick overview of visual processing and some examples of problems that a person may have following an impairment along the visual hierarchy.


Visual Processing
Vision is the most important sensory system - provides 70% of sensory information to our brain
The visual system includes the eyeball, the optic nerve and several areas of the brain that all interact in a complex way
Oculomotor Skills - the ability to move the eyes
Visual Fields - the area that the eye can see
Visual Acuity - the sharpness of the eyesight
Visual Attention - the ability to attend and shift between visual stimuli
Scanning - the ability to scan the visual scene in a systematic way
Pattern Recognition - the ability to identify different features of an object e.g. colour, shape..
Visual Memory - the ability to visually process information, store & recall it later. Includes being able to match an image with what is already stored in your memory.
Visual Cognition - This is a high level skill It's the ability to mentally manipulate visual information and integrate this with other sensory information e.g. smell, touch/Skills such as:
Spatial problems
Position in space
Constructional problems
Starting from the bottom up:


What kind of visual problems can a person present with?
Missing information in the visual field
Double vision (diplopia)
Slow scanning speed therefore miss information
Inability to recognise objects
Neglecting stimuli on one side of the body
Next time I will discuss some compensatory strategies and treatment techniques that we teach people to overcome these impairments.
By doing this I'm hoping to spread some awareness of how the brain works and the impact an brain injury can have upon a persons everyday functioning.
Please feel free to message me if you have any questions.