Jessica F. Cantlon|Philippe Pinel|Stanislas Dehaene|Kevin A. Pelphrey
Cortical Representations of Symbols, Objects, and Faces Are Pruned Back during Early Childhood
University of Rochester|Cognitive Neuroimaging Lab|University of Paris-Sud|Inserm|Institut d'Imagerie Biomédicale|Atomic Energy and Alternative Energies Commission|University of Paris-Sud|Inserm|Institut d'Imagerie Biomédicale|Atomic Energy and Alternative Energies Commission|Collège de France|Cognitive Neuroimaging Lab|Yale University
regions human ventral extrastriate visual cortex develop specializations natural categories eg faces cultural artifacts eg words adults categorybased specializations manifest greater neural responses visual regions brain eg fusiform gyrus categories others however studies examined specializations originate brains children moreover yet unknown whether development visual specializations hinges increases response preferred categories decreases responses nonpreferred categories question relevant longstanding debate concerning whether neural development driven building pruning back representations explore questions measured patterns visual activity 4yearold children 4 categories faces letters numbers shoes using functional magnetic resonance imaging report 2 key findings regarding development visual categories brain 1 categories faces symbols doubly dissociate fusiform gyrus children read 2 development categoryspecific responses young children depends cortical responses nonpreferred categories decrease preferred category knowledge acquired