Creatures great and small: Real-world size of animals predicts visual cortex representations beyond taxonomic category

NeuroImage
Marc N Coutanche, Griffin E Koch

Abstract

Human occipitotemporal cortex contains neural representations for a variety of perceptual and conceptual features. We report a study examining neural representations of real-world size along the visual ventral stream, while carefully accounting for taxonomic categories that typically co-vary with size. We recorded brain activity during a functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) scan from eighteen participants as they were presented with images of twelve animal species. The animals were selected to vary on a number of dimensions, including taxonomic group, real-world size and prior familiarity. We apply multivariate analysis methods, including representational similarity analysis (RSA) and machine learning classifiers, to probe the distributed patterns of neural activity evoked by these presentations. We find that the real-world size of visually presented animate items is represented in posterior, but not anterior, regions of the ventral stream. A significant linear relationship is present for real-world size representation along the ventral stream. These representations remain after controlling for factors such as taxonomic category, familiarity and models of visual similarity, and even after restricting examinations to wit...Continue Reading

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