How distributed is visual category information in human occipito-temporal
cortex? An fMRI study.
Neuron, (2002)Abstract
We used fMRI to study the distribution of object category information
in the ventral visual pathway. Extending the findings of, we find
that categories of stimuli can be distinguished by the pattern of
activation they elicit across this entire pathway, even when the
stimuli within a category differ in viewpoint, exemplar, or image
format. However, regions within the ventral visual pathway are neither
interchangeable nor equipotential. Although the FFA and PPA permit
excellent discrimination between preferred versus nonpreferred stimuli
(e.g., faces-bottles and houses-bottles, respectively), we find that
neither region alone permits accurate discrimination between pairs
of nonpreferred stimuli (e.g., bottles-shoes). These findings indicate
that the ventral visual pathway is not homogeneous, but contains
some regions (including FFA and PPA) that are primarily involved
in the analysis of a single class of stimulus.