Factors governing the assignment of visual consequence to the corresponding action.

To achieve fast feedback control of voluntary movements, the visual consequences of our motor commands need to be quickly identified and analyzed by the motor control processes in the brain. These processes work remarkably well even in complex visual environments and in the face of discrepancies between physical actuator and visually perceived effect, e.g.

Cortical connectivity in the face of congenital structural changes-A case of homozygous LAMC3 mutation.

The homozygous LAMC3 gene mutation is associated with severe bilateral smoothening and thickening of the lateral occipital cortex . Despite this and further significant changes in gray matter structure, a patient harboring this mutation exhibited a range of remarkably intact perceptual abilities . One possible explanation of this perceptual sparing could be that the white matter structural integrity and functional connectivity in relevant pathways remained intact.

Unmet expectations delay sensory processes.

Expectations strongly affect and shape our perceptual decision-making processes. Specifically, valid expectations speed up perceptual decisions, and determine what we see in a noisy stimulus. Despite the well-established effects of expectations on decision-making, whether and how they affect low-level sensory processes remain elusive.

Homozygous LAMC3 mutation links to structural and functional changes in visual attention networks.

The occipital lobe contains a substantial part of the neural machinery involved in visual perception. Mutations in the LAMC3 gene have recently been shown to cause complex bilateral occipital cortical gyration abnormalities. However, to what extent these structural changes impact visual behavior is not known.