Subordinate Categorization Enhances the Neural Selectivity in Human Object-selective Cortex for Fine Shape Differences

& There is substantial evidence that object representations in adults are dynamically updated by learning. However, it is not clear to what extent these effects are induced by ac-tive processing of visual objects in a particular task context on top of the effects of mere exposure to the same objects. Here we show that the task does matter. We performed an event-related fMRI adaptation study in which we derived neural selectivity from a release of adaptation. We had two training conditions: ‘‘categorized objects’ ’ were categorized at a sub-ordinate level based on fine shape differences (Which type of fish is this?), whereas ‘‘control objects’ ’ were seen equally often in a task context requiring no subordinate categorization (Is this a vase or not?). After training, the object-selective cor-tex was more selective for differences among categorized ob-jects than for differences among control objects. This result indicates that the task context during training modulates the extent to which object selectivity is enhanced as a result of training. &amp