Two Streams hypothesis

The Two-Streams hypothesis is a widely accepted account of visual processing. As visual information exits the occipital lobe, it follows two main channels, or "streams." The ventral stream (also known as the "what pathway") travels to the temporal lobe and is involved with object identification. The dorsal stream (or, "where pathway") terminates in the parietal lobe and process spatial locations.

The hypothesis was originally proposed by L.G. Ungerleider and M. Mishkin in 1982 (abstract) and reviewed by G. Ettlinger in 1990 (abstract).