optic radiation vs pathway

optic radiation and pathway both are nouns.

Word	Noun	Adjective	Verb	Adverb
optic radiation	Yes	No	No	No
pathway	Yes	No	No	No

As nouns, pathway is a hypernym of optic radiation; that is, pathway is a word with a broader meaning than optic radiation:

optic radiation: a nerve pathway from the lateral geniculate body to the visual cortex
pathway: a bundle of myelinated nerve fibers following a path through the brain

Other hypernyms of optic radiation include nerve pathway, nerve tract, tract.

optic radiation (noun)	pathway (noun)
a nerve pathway from the lateral geniculate body to the visual cortex	a trodden path
	a bundle of myelinated nerve fibers following a path through the brain