Category selectivity as a window into behavioral relevance.

Journal: Cognitive neuroscience
Published Date: Nov 23, 2025

Abstract

Ritchie et al. (this issue) argue that a deeper understanding of occipitotemporal cortex (OTC) requires shifting emphasis from category selectivity to behavioral relevance. They suggest that focusing on categories such as faces, bodies, or scenes is too narrow and overlooks how OTC supports flexible, goal-directed behavior. We agree that linking neural representations to behavior is essential but caution against treating category selectivity and behavioral relevance as opposing views. Category selectivity provides valuable insight into how cortical representations are organized to support behavior, and recent advances in computational modeling, particularly with deep neural networks, offer a powerful framework for probing this relationship.

Authors

  • Leonard E van Dyck
    Department of Psychology, Justus Liebig University Giessen, Giessen, Germany. [email protected].
  • Katharina Dobs
    Department of Psychology, Justus Liebig University Giessen, Giessen, Germany; Center for Mind, Brain and Behavior (CMBB), University of Marburg and Justus Liebig University, Giessen, Germany. Electronic address: [email protected].

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