Final answer:
Ungerleider and Mishkin's 1982 study revealed two distinct brain pathways, the 'what pathway' for object identification and the 'where/how pathway' for spatial processing, highlighting the separate processing streams in the brain for different aspects of visual information.
Step-by-step explanation:
By lesioning monkeys' brains, Ungerleider and Mishkin (1982) discovered that there were separate brain pathways for processing 'what' and 'where' information. This pivotal discovery indicates how visual information is processed in parallel pathways in the brain, with the "what pathway" (ventral stream) being crucial for object recognition and identification, and the "where/how pathway" (dorsal stream) essential for understanding location and interaction with visual stimuli. These pathways project from the retina through the thalamus to the primary visual cortex and undergo further complex processing in the cerebral cortex, associating visual stimuli with memory and responsive actions.