Temporal dynamics provide new insights into the dimensions underlying object space

How is object information organized in high-level visual cortex? Recently, a comprehensive model of object space in macaques was proposed, defined by the orthogonal axes of animacy and aspect ratio (Bao et al., 2020). However, when using stimuli that dissociated category, animacy, and aspect ratio in humans, no tuning of aspect ratio was observed in fMRI data (Yargholi & Op de Beeck, 2023). This difference could be a result of different stimuli, or the limited temporal resolution of fMRI. Here, we asked if and when information about aspect ratio and/or animacy is available over time. We collected whole-brain electroencephalography (EEG) data while participants (N = 20) viewed the stimulus set used by Yargholi & Op de Beeck (2023). To mask object details and increase reliance on shape information, we also presented binarized versions of the stimuli. Stimuli were presented in 5Hz streams using rapid serial visual presentation. Intact and binarized stimuli sets were shown in separate streams. Using standard multivariate decoding pipelines and representational similarity analysis, we found that both aspect ratio and animacy are represented during visual object processing. The dominant dimension was modulated by stimulus type, demonstrating that the observable dimensions of object space depend on the nature of the stimuli presented. Taken together, these findings demonstrate that the dimension of aspect ratio is represented during object processing, however earlier and more transiently than categorical dimensions, such as animacy. By focusing on underlying temporal dynamics, our results provide clear new insights into the contradicting findings reported in previous work.