The visual cortex has a direct pathway to the retina via the lateral geniculate nuclei. And there are lots of reflexes to fire, before we have time to understa

The visual cortex has a direct pathway to the retina via the lateral geniculate nuclei. And there are lots of reflexes to fire, before we have time to understand what we're seeing. Like putting your hands in front of your eyes when an object approaches rapidly, long before you recognize what the object is. There needs to be something between the retina and visual cortex to respond to this quickly enough.