Constructing scenes from objects in human occipitotemporal cortex

We used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to demonstrate the existence of a mechanism in the human lateral occipital (LO) cortex that supports recognition of real-world visual scenes through parallel analysis of within-scene objects. Neural activity was recorded while subjects viewed four categories of scenes and eight categories of 'signature' objects strongly associated with the scenes in three experiments. Multivoxel patterns evoked by scenes in the LO cortex were well predicted by the average of the patterns elicited by their signature objects. By contrast, there was no relationship between scene and object patterns in the parahippocampal place area (PPA), even though this region responds strongly to scenes and is believed to be crucial for scene identification. By combining information about multiple objects within a scene, the LO cortex may support an object-based channel for scene recognition that complements the processing of global scene properties in the PPA.