Concurrent category-selective neural activity across the ventral occipito-temporal cortex supports a non-hierarchical view of human visual recognition.

Overview

1. Université de Lorraine, CNRS, IMoPA, Nancy, France
2. Université de Lorraine, CHRU-Nancy, Service de Neurologie, Nancy, France
3. Université de Lorraine, CHRU-Nancy, Service de Neurochirurgie, Nancy, France

Abstract

Visual recognition is a fundamental human brain function, supported by a network of regions in the ventral occipito-temporal cortex (VOTC). This network is thought to be organized hierarchically, with definite processing stages increasing in invariance and time-course from posterior to anterior cortical regions. Here, we provide a stringent test of this view by measuring category-selective neural activity to natural images of faces across the VOTC with electrophysiological intracerebral recordings in a large human sample (N=140; >11,000 recording sites). Face-selective high frequency broadband (30–160 Hz) neural activity is distributed across the VOTC, with right-hemispheric dominance and regional peaks of activity. Crucially, while a progressive increase in degree of category-selectivity is found along the postero-anterior axis, neural activity occurs largely concurrently (~100 ms onset – ~450 ms offset) across all VOTC regions. These observations challenge the standard hierarchical view of neural organization of visual object recognition in the human association cortex, supporting alternative models of this key brain function.

Reproduced under the paper's license (CC BY), from the paper cited above.

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Data

Datasets cited

• osf:2qzym, at OSF; found in “Data availability”

Data availability

Raw iEEG data is available at https://osf.io/2qzym under CC-BY 4.0.

The following dataset was generated:

Jacques C, Jonas J, Colnat-Coulbois S, Rossion B. 2025. Concurrent category-selective neural activity across ventral visual cortex supports a non-hierarchical view of human visual recognition. Open Science Framework. 2qzym

Reproduced under the paper's license (CC BY), from the paper cited above.

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Version 1, 27 September 2026: the first record

Recorded: type, language, journal, volume, pages, dates, 4 authors, 1 keyword, 9 MeSH terms, 1 funder, 112 references.

Cite

This paper

Jacques, C., Jonas, J., Colnat-Coulbois, S., & Rossion, B. (2026). Concurrent category-selective neural activity across the ventral occipito-temporal cortex supports a non-hierarchical view of human visual recognition. eLife, 15, RP109640. https://doi.org/10.7554/elife.109640

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