Accuracy and Efficiency of Dynamic Computer-Assisted Implant Surgery Using Three Different Registration Methods-A Laboratory Study.

What functional organization in human visual cortex could give rise to both category-selective areas and continuous feature maps? Using a data-driven decomposition of fMRI responses to natural images, we identified interpretable dimensions that explain activity in face-, body-, and scene-selective areas. These dimensions captured both within-category and between-category distinctions, formed distinct clusters within category-selective areas, and extended as distributed maps across visual cortex. This underlying functional organization reconciles categorical and dimensional accounts and helps explain how visual cortex balances specificity and flexibility to support diverse perceptual and cognitive demands. Human visual cortex contains category-selective areas that respond preferentially to specific visual inputs, such as faces, bodies, and scenes (; ; ; ). The discovery of these specialized areas gave rise to a categorical view of cortical organization, in which category membership serves as the primary organizing principle of high-level visual cortex, encompassing ventral and lateral occipito-temporal cortex beyond early retinotopic maps. This view is supported by univariate analyses that contrast fMRI responses to predefined stimulus categories and have been instrumental in identifying classical category-selective areas (; ; ), uncovering novel category-selective responses (; ; ; ; ), and establishing their behavioral relevance (; ; ). In contrast, a dimensional view proposes that high-level visual cortex is organized along continuous feature dimensions that span categorical boundaries (, ; ; ). This view has been supported by both univariate and multivariate analyses, which show that category-selective areas encode a variety of features beyond their preferred categories (; ). Within these areas, functional clusters represent both finer within-category distinctions (; ; ) and coarser between-category distinctions (; , ; ), indicating a more complex and spatially overlapping organization. More broadly, neural responses in visual cortex reflect a wide range of feature dimensions, including animacy, real-world size, aspect ratio, behavioral aspects, and semantic content (; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ). These features are encoded in large-scale maps that embed category-selective areas within a continuous representational landscape.