Visual coding of human bodies: perceptual aftereffects reveal norm-based, opponent coding of body identity

Despite the discovery of body-selective neural areas in occipitotemporal cortex, little is known about how bodies are visually coded. We used perceptual adaptation to determine how body identity is coded. Brief exposure to a body (e.g., anti-Rose) biased perception toward an identity with opposite properties (Rose). Moreover, the size of this aftereffect increased with adaptor extremity, as predicted by norm-based, opponent coding of body identity. A size change between adapt and test bodies minimized the effects of low-level, retinotopic adaptation. These results demonstrate that body identity, like face identity, is opponent coded in higher-level vision. More generally, they show that a norm-based multidimensional framework, which is well established for face perception, may provide a powerful framework for understanding body perception.