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Neural object representations predict visual discrimination success in adolescents and adults

Poster Session B - Sunday, March 8, 2026, 8:00 – 10:00 am PDT, Fairview/Kitsilano Ballroom

Merron Woodbury¹ (), Sagana Vijayarajah, Margaret L. Schlichting; ¹University of Toronto

Object perception involves processing both broad conceptual features as well as unique, item-specific ones. However, the ability to discriminate between conceptually related objects matures slowly through development. Despite this extended developmental trajectory, previous work has often focused on the neural underpinnings of object perception in infancy and childhood leaving adolescence relatively underexplored. Here, adolescents (N=36; 12-13 year olds) and adults (N=36) viewed exemplars from four object concepts during functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scanning. We used a pattern similarity searchlight to identify brain regions within each age group which represented objects at the concept or exemplar level. After scanning, participants completed a match/mismatch task assessing their ability to visually discriminate between exemplars of the same concept. We identified substantial overlap across age groups in the brain regions coding for concept and exemplar, primarily within the visual cortex. In addition, adults showed enhanced concept-coding in midline structures and exemplar-coding in parietal, insular, and anterior cingulate cortices compared to adolescents. Behaviourally, adolescents performed worse on the discrimination task, in keeping with previous findings. Yet we found consistency across age groups in the relationships between behaviour and neural representation: superior performance discriminating between exemplars of a concept was linked to stronger neural coding at the exemplar, but not concept, level. Together, our results suggest that object representations in the brain continue to mature and expand even beyond early adolescence, but these representations may inform object perception in a similar manner in adolescence and adulthood.

Topic Area: PERCEPTION & ACTION: Vision