Primary Optic Nerve Pathways

In general, parallel processing refers to separate channels through which information can be independently processed. Consider the US Post Office as an example of parallel processing. Letters to one office have no effect on letters to another. Vision scientists have considered parallel processing in the visual system of a variety of animals for many years. However, ophthalmologists and other clinicians have tended to see the human visual system as serial processing. Textbooks still describe how the visual information proceeds from retina to the lateral geniculate nucleus (LGN) via the optic nerve then 'relays' from the LGN to the visual cortex via the optic radiations. We hope that in the future textbooks will take Into account the greater complexity of visual information processing.