Transformation of Visual Representations Across Ventral Stream Body-selective Patches

Although the neural processing of visual images of bodies is critical for survival, it is much less well understood than face processing. Functional imaging studies demonstrated body selective regions in primate inferior temporal cortex. To advance our understanding of how the visual brain represents bodies, we compared the representation of animate and inanimate objects in two such body patches with fMRI-guided single unit recordings in rhesus monkeys. We found that the middle Superior Temporal Sulcus body patch (MSB) distinguishes to a greater extent bodies from non-bodies than the anterior Superior Temporal Sulcus body patch (ASB). Importantly, ASB carried more viewpoint-tolerant information about body posture and body identity than MSB, while MSB showed greater orientation selectivity. Combined with previous work on faces, this suggests that an increase in view-tolerant representations, coupled with a refined individuation, along the visual hierarchy is a general property of information processing within the inferior temporal cortex.