Many studies examined where and how the brain encodes faces but much less is known about another ecological important visual category: bodies. fMRI studies in humans and monkeys have shown body category-selective regions, i.e. body patches, in the occipito-temporal cortex. I will discuss monkey fMRI studies that revealed the body patch network of the inferior temporal cortex. Then, I will review single-unit recording studies of the stimulus selectivity of neurons in two of the fMRI-defined body patches. These studies suggest that, although the features that body patch neurons respond to differ from those of face patch neurons, the body and face patch systems show a similar functional organization, e.g. in terms of tolerance to changes in viewpoint.
