Principles of coarse-scale functional organization in occipitotemporal cortex

Occipitotemporal cortex (OTC) is known to support visual object processing, yet identifying general principles underlying its coarse-scale functional organization remains challenging. Previously proposed organizational dimensions, such as animacy or real-world size, may not generalize to more diverse, naturalistic stimuli and strong intercorrelations of object properties complicate determining which dimensions, if any, dominate OTC organization. We addressed these challenges through detailed analyses of the cortical topography underlying 15 object properties, using fMRI responses to thousands of natural images, focusing on animacy and size given their established prominence. Our results confirm many characteristics of the purported animacy-size organization, but reveal distinctions that challenge dominant notions of this organization, highlighting the importance of generalizing to large-scale naturalistic data. Beyond animacy and size, many properties could alternatively serve as organizational dimensions, yet none emerges as clearly dominant throughout OTC. Together, our findings reveal a more refined animacy-size organization than previously assumed and highlight challenges of assigning individual principles to account for OTC organization.