Higher-order visuospatial processing abilities in cerebral visual impairment: Behavioral assessment and neurophysiological mechanisms

Abstract

Cerebral visual impairment (CVI) is a brain-based visual disorder associated with early injury and maldevelopment of visual processing pathways and areas. The clinical profile of visual dysfunctions observed in CVI is broad and complex. In this review, we discuss how visuospatial processing deficits represent a core feature of this condition, focusing on evidence from behavioral studies investigating complex motion processing and visual search abilities. Results from functional and structural neuroimaging studies have also provided important insight into putative neurophysiological mechanisms associated with these functional visual impairments. We propose that higher-order visual processing dysfunctions in CVI result from an impaired interplay between bottom-up (stimulus-driven) and top-down (goal-driven) processing mechanisms that leads to characteristic challenges in interpreting and interacting with the surrounding visual environment.