Does the dorsal pathway derive intermediate shape-centred representations?

Vannuscorps et al. (2021) present a case study of a young woman named Davida, who has a highly selec-tive visual disorder. The authors conducted an impressive set of complementary experiments and provided evidence that Davida perceives 2D shapes, bounded by sharp, high contrast edges, to be fl ipped along their own axes and/or orientated along their shape-centred coordinates (90°, 180°, 270°). However, these unique de fi cits were not found for perception of 3D stimuli, stimuli that are strongly blurred, implied by motion, or de fi ned by low luminance contrast with the background. To explain these results, the authors proposed the exist-ence of an intermediate stage of processing in the visual system termed “ intermediate shape-centred representation ” (ISCR) that represents bounded areas of the visual fi eld in a shape-centred frame of reference. These ISCRs are computed in parallel based on di ff erent visual cues before being integrated and mapped onto higher frames of reference to support visuoperceptual and visuomotor behaviours.