Voxelwise encoding models of body stimuli reveal a representational gradient from low-level visual features to postural features in occipitotemporal cortex

Research on body representation in the brain has focused on category-specific representation, using fMRI to investigate the response pattern to body stimuli in occipitotemporal cortex without so far addressing the issue of the specific computations involved in body selective regions, only defined by higher order category selectivity. This study used ultra-high field fMRI and banded ridge regression to investigate the coding of body images, by comparing the performance of three encoding models in predicting brain activity in occipitotemporal cortex and specifically the extrastriate body area (EBA).

Our results suggest that bodies are encoded in occipitotemporal cortex and in the EBA according to a combination of low-level visual features and postural features.