fMR-adaptation reveals a distributed representation of inanimate objects and places in human visual cortex

The way information about objects is represented in visual cortex remains controversial. It is unclear, for example, whether information is processed in modules, specialized for different categories of objects or whether information is represented in a distributed fashion across a large network of overlapping visual areas. In this study, we used fMR-adaptation to investigate the extent to which 'specialized' regions of visual cortex are involved in representing information about inanimate objects and places. We found adaptation in the object-selective lateral occipital complex (LOC) following repeated presentations of the same inanimate object. However, we also found fMR-adaptation to inanimate objects in fusiform face area (FFA) and the parahippocampal place area (PPA). Furthermore, this adaptation was not affected by changes in the size of the stimulus. In the second part of the experiment, we found adaptation to repeated images of places in the place-selective PPA, which was both size- and viewpoint-invariant. fMR-adaptation to repeated images of places was also observed in the LOC, but not in the FFA. These results suggest that the representation of inanimate objects and places is not restricted to those regions showing maximal responses to these particular categories of objects, but is distributed across human visual cortex and can include 'face-selective' regions such as the FFA.