The visual cortex is often studied in investigations of the human brain because it constitutes a relatively large part of the cerebral cortex. This seminar will present some of the approaches used to model the electrical activity of the human brain and the visual cortex. A spherical model of the head which represents a neural source of activity as a dipole will be presented, as will data visualization techniques including contour maps, anatomical reconstructions from magnetic resonance images and flat maps of the brain. Ideas and questions will be raised as to how models in areas of geography, such as seismic topology, might use similar modeling approaches which could be applied to research of the human brain.