Category-preferring patches in human orbitofrontal cortex

Abstract

The human ventral occipitotemporal cortex (VOTC) contains multiple category-preferring areas, organized along posterior-to-anterior and medial-to-lateral axes. Whether this organization extends beyond the VOTC remains unclear. Using two millimeter-scale 7T fMRI datasets, we identified face- and color-preferring patches in the lateral orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) in most participants, and word-preferring patches in half, replicating across runs. As in the VOTC, OFC face and word patches lay lateral to color patches, and OFC patches were as selective as the most anterior VOTC patches. Perception and mental imagery evoked opposite activation gradients across patches, and distinct connectivity patterns, with OFC-anterior temporal coupling persisting during imagery. In congenital aphantasia, OFC selectivity and representational content were comparable to those of typical imagers, but OFC coupling with anterior temporal cortex was weaker. These results suggest OFC and VOTC category-preferring patches belong to shared, functionally connected networks engaged by both visual input and memory.