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Revisiting body topography in lateral occipitotemporal cortex

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

Brendan Ritchie¹ (), Lilly Keleman², MJ Carter³, Tyler Morgan⁴, Joelle Sarlls⁵, Beth Rispoli⁶, Chris Baker⁴; ¹University of Lethbridge, ²Duke University, ³Carnegie Mellon University, ⁴National Institute of Mental Health, ⁵National Institute of Neurological Disorders, ⁶Georgetown University

Lateral occipitotemporal cortex (LOTC) is well-known to exhibit adjacent clustering of selectivity for face and body stimuli. Often these focal points of selectivity are characterized as reflecting activation of distinct face- and body-selective brain regions, the occipital face area (OFA) and extrastriate body area (EBA). However, previous studies have provided some evidence that they may form components of a larger topographic organization that either reflect the adjacency of body parts to each other, or a radial organization relative to motion-selective V5/hMT. We sought to revisit this issue using ultrahigh field 7T fMRI and DTI to more conclusively test these hypotheses. Data was collected for participants (N = 5, data collection on going) across three sessions. In Session 1, participants viewed videos of moving body parts (heads, arms, hands, stomachs, legs, and feet) with both event-related (4 runs) and block designs (4 runs). In Session 2, localizer scans were performed to isolate both motion-selective and category-selective (faces, bodies, scenes, and objects) regions of interest (4 runs each). In Session 3, data was collected for population receptive field mapping (4 runs) using body part stimuli, as well as resting state, functional connectivity (while watching a video of contemporary dance), and DTI. Preliminary analysis of the data from Session 1 suggests the topography of responses in LOTC for different body parts varies markedly across individuals, with different individuals showing loci of selectivity for some body parts, but not others.

Topic Area: PERCEPTION & ACTION: Vision