Abstract
We investigated the prevalence and specificity of category-selective
regions in human visual cortex. In the broadest survey to date of
category selectivity in visual cortex, 12 participants were scanned
with functional magnetic resonance imaging while viewing scenes and
19 different object categories in a blocked-design experiment. As
expected, we found selectivity for faces in the fusiform face area
(FFA), for scenes in the parahippocampal place area (PPA), and for
bodies in the extrastriate body area (EBA). In addition, we describe
3 main new findings. First, evidence for the selectivity of the FFA,
PPA, and EBA was strengthened by the finding that each area responded
significantly more strongly to its preferred category than to the
next most effective of the remaining 19 stimulus categories tested.
Second, a region in the middle temporal gyrus that has been reported
to respond significantly more strongly to tools than to animals did
not respond significantly more strongly to tools than to other nontool
categories (such as fruits and vegetables), casting doubt on the
characterization of this region as tool selective. Finally, we did
not find any new regions in the occipitotemporal pathway that were
strongly selective for other categories. Taken together, these results
demonstrate both the strong selectivity of a small number of regions
and the scarcity of such regions in visual cortex.
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