A Real-World Size Organization of Object Responses in Occipitotemporal Cortex

• DOI: 10.1016/j.neuron.2012.04.036
• Publication Date: 2012-06-20T15:16:06Z
• Authors: Talia Konkle; Aude Oliva
• Keywords: Adult; Male; Neurons; 0301 basic medicine; Brain Mapping; Neuroscience(all); Functional Neuroimaging; Temporal Lobe; 03 medical and health sciences; Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; Visual Perception; Humans; Female; Occipital Lobe; Photic Stimulation; Size Perception

While there are selective regions of occipitotemporal cortex that respond to faces, letters, and bodies, the large-scale neural organization of most object categories remains unknown. Here, we find that object representations can be differentiated along the ventral temporal cortex by their real-world size. In a functional neuroimaging experiment, observers were shown pictures of big and small real-world objects (e.g., table, bathtub; paperclip, cup), presented at the same retinal size. We observed a consistent medial-to-lateral organization of big and small object preferences in the ventral temporal cortex, mirrored along the lateral surface. Regions in the lateral-occipital, inferotemporal, and parahippocampal cortices showed strong peaks of differential real-world size selectivity and maintained these preferences over changes in retinal size and in mental imagery. These data demonstrate that the real-world size of objects can provide insight into the spatial topography of object representation.