What if the visual brain does not process information through a single hierarchy but runs multiple parallel systems that complete their tasks at different times? Neuroscientist Semir Zeki challenges the textbook model of visual processing, arguing that asynchronous operations across parallel pathways, not sequential stages through V1, are the fundamental organizing principle of visual perception. Subscribe for more from the Convergent Science Network podcast series. Semir Zeki joins Paul Verschure and Tony Prescott at the BCBT summer school to present an alternative architecture for the visual brain built on four key findings that the standard model fails to accommodate. First, V1 is not the sole gateway to visual cortex , direct projections from the LGN and pulvinar reach specialized visual areas independently. Second, conscious visual experienc ...