The study investigates the distributed representation of objects in the human ventral visual pathway, focusing on face perception, object recognition, and functional MRI (fMRI) data. The researchers identified three distinct regions in the ventral temporal cortex that responded preferentially to faces, houses, and chairs, with a consistent topological arrangement. However, each category also evoked significant responses in regions that responded maximally to other stimuli, indicating that object representation is not confined to specific modules but is distributed across a broader expanse of cortex. The results suggest that the functional architecture of the ventral visual pathway is a continuous representation of object features, rather than a mosaic of category-specific modules. This continuous representation has a highly consistent and orderly topological arrangement, reflecting distinctions between categories. The study also highlights that the representation of faces is more localized and less distributed compared to houses and chairs, suggesting that face perception may have specialized neural mechanisms.The study investigates the distributed representation of objects in the human ventral visual pathway, focusing on face perception, object recognition, and functional MRI (fMRI) data. The researchers identified three distinct regions in the ventral temporal cortex that responded preferentially to faces, houses, and chairs, with a consistent topological arrangement. However, each category also evoked significant responses in regions that responded maximally to other stimuli, indicating that object representation is not confined to specific modules but is distributed across a broader expanse of cortex. The results suggest that the functional architecture of the ventral visual pathway is a continuous representation of object features, rather than a mosaic of category-specific modules. This continuous representation has a highly consistent and orderly topological arrangement, reflecting distinctions between categories. The study also highlights that the representation of faces is more localized and less distributed compared to houses and chairs, suggesting that face perception may have specialized neural mechanisms.