By tracking brain activity directly through implanted electrodes, researchers reveal how visual information races from early visual regions to memory, emotion, and higher-order cognitive networks within the first few hundred milliseconds. Study: Brain-wide information flow dynamics during novel visual processing in humans. Image Credit: MAXIMUM ART / Shutterstock A recent article-in-press study published in the journal Communications Biology shows that seeing a new face or place activates different parts of the brain in rapid sequence within the first few hundred milliseconds. These regions work together to identify and interpret the visual image as information moves from occipital visual areas through dorsal and ventral pathways toward frontal and limbic regions. The findings help explain how the brain can begin processing faces and places almost instantly and improve understanding of visual information flow in the brain, contributing to the knowledge base and potentially informing future studies of neurological conditions that affect these pathways. Such conditions may include neurodegenerative disorders, traumatic brain injury, infections, and epilepsy, although the present study did not test diagnosis or early detection. Visual Information Flow Background The brain processes visual images within fractions of a second to help direct movement and build social interactions. The sequence in which visual cues activate different regions of the brain, however, remains unclear. Existing imaging techniques can identify brain regions actively involved in image processing, but cannot capture signals traversing visual information pathways at millisecond resolution, warranting further research. Such knowledge could help scientists better understand perception and the interaction between visual processing, memory, and emotion during everyday image interpretation. iEEG Visual Processing Study Design In the present study, researchers obtained intracranial electroencephalography (iEEG) recordings from 22 individuals with drug-resistant epilepsy. Surgeons had implanted electrodes in the brains of these patients as part of medical treatment planning. The team instructed the participants