9. The visual system

The visual system runs from the eye to the occipital cortex and from there back to the cortical regions, which handle the functional (parietal) and emotional (temporal) processing of visual information. The system is strongly lateralized: external events on the right are processed in the left cerebrum and vice versa. A disorder can normally be localized within the visual system by testing the visual fields. After being registered in the occipital cortex, visual signals are analysed and synthetized to form an identifiable concept. The main disorders of the central visual functions are visual hallucinations and delusion, palinopsia, neglect, loss van spatial awareness, inability to name things or read, and inability to recognize functional objects of faces.