Day 93 of 150 Pattern Difficulty 7/10
The LOC codes the shape you see, not the pixels you fixate
Quick answer
The LOC codes the shape you see, not the pixels you fixate. Today's question (Lateral occipital complex shape coding) asks about a finding from Kourtzi, Z., & Kanwisher, N. in 2001. The correct option is The perceived shape of objects rather than their image-level features — full explanation, primary source, and glossary cross-links below.
Today's question
Kourtzi and Kanwisher (2001) used fMRI adaptation to ask whether the lateral occipital complex (LOC) codes:
Reveal the answer and explanation
Correct: B — The perceived shape of objects rather than their image-level features
Using a repetition-suppression design, Kourtzi and Kanwisher (2001) showed that the LOC released from adaptation when an object's shape changed but not when only contrast or position changed — and stayed adapted across image-different views of the same shape. They concluded the LOC represents shape at a level closer to perceived form than to retinal image. The result helped establish a hierarchy in human ventral cortex from V1 image features to LOC shape descriptions, with face-, place-, and body-selective regions sitting alongside. The LOC is now a standard target for studies of object-shape representation.
About the source
Kourtzi, Z., & Kanwisher, N. (2001). Representation of perceived object shape by the human lateral occipital complex. Science, 293(5534), 1506–1509.
Every Cognition Bible question cites a primary source — a paper, book chapter, or monograph that exists, that we can point to on Google Scholar, and whose finding the question accurately summarizes. No fabricated authority strings, no name-drops without paper-level grounding.
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