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Home
A Shared Code For Perceiving And Imagining Objects In Human Ventral Temporal Cortex.

Home
A Shared Code For Perceiving And Imagining Objects In Human Ventral Temporal Cortex.

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Translational Brain Mapping at the University of Rochester Medical Center: Preserving the Mind Through Personalized Brain Mapping

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A shared code for perceiving and imagining objects in human ventral temporal cortex.

V S Wadia^1,2, C M Reed³, J M Chung³

¹Department of Neurosurgery, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles, CA, USA.

Science (New York, N.Y.)

|April 9, 2026

View abstract on PubMed

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

Human brain imaging reveals that visual imagery reactivates the same neurons used for visual perception. This suggests the brain uses a generative model for imagining objects, supported by ventral temporal cortex (VTC) neurons.

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Area of Science:

Neuroscience
Cognitive Science
Visual Perception

Background:

Animal studies offer insights into visual perception mechanisms.
Neural mechanisms underlying human visual imagery are not well understood.

Purpose of the Study:

Investigate the neural basis of visual imagery in the human brain.
Determine if visual imagery utilizes the same neural pathways as visual perception.

Main Methods:

Recorded single-neuron activity in the human ventral temporal cortex (VTC).
Identified a distributed axis code used by VTC neurons to represent objects.
Generated synthetic stimuli based on this neural code.
Compared neural responses during object perception and imagination.

Main Results:

Approximately 80% of visually responsive VTC neurons use a distributed axis code for object representation.
About 40% of axis-tuned VTC neurons recapitulated their visual code during mental imagery.
Demonstrated single-neuron evidence for a generative model in the human VTC.

Conclusions:

Visual imagery involves the reactivation of neural populations engaged in visual perception.
The human ventral temporal cortex (VTC) plays a crucial role in both perception and imagery.
Findings support the existence of a generative model for mental imagery in the brain.