A single computational objective can produce specialization of streams in visual cortex
Journal:
bioRxiv
Published Date:
Jun 20, 2026
Abstract
Human visual cortex is organized into dorsal, lateral, and ventral streams. A long-standing hypothesis is that the functional organization into streams emerged to support distinct visual behaviors. Here, we use a neural network-based computational model and a massive fMRI dataset to investigate why visual streams emerge. We find that models trained for stream-specific visual behaviors poorly capture brain responses and organization. Instead, a self-supervised Topographic Deep Artificial Neural Network, which encourages nearby units to respond similarly, successfully predicts brain responses, spatial segregation, and functional differentiation across streams. These findings challenge the prevailing view that streams evolved to separately support different behaviors and suggest instead that functional organization can arise from a single principle: learning generally useful visual representations subject to local spatial constraints.
