Principles of coarse-scale functional organization in occipitotemporal cortex.

fMRI mapping of occipitotemporal cortex using thousands of natural images confirms an animacy–size organization, but shows key distinctions that challenge dominant notions.

• Why it matters: Prior proposed dimensions like animacy or real-world size may not generalize to diverse naturalistic stimuli, and strong intercorrelations among object properties make it unclear which dimension dominates.
• What they did: The study analyzed cortical topography for 15 object properties from fMRI responses to thousands of natural images, emphasizing animacy and size while testing alternatives.
• The result: Many features of animacy–size are supported, yet no single property beyond it clearly dominates across OTC, implying a more refined organization and limits on single-principle explanations.

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