Face-, color-, and word-specific patches in the human orbitofrontal cortex

The human ventral occipitotemporal cortex (VOTC) contains multiple category-specific areas, organized along posterior-to-anterior and medial-to-lateral axes. However, the role of regions beyond the VOTC in category-specific processing remains less explored. Here, we report the presence of face-, color- and word-specific patches in the human orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) and systematically describe their location, activity amplitude, category selectivity, representational content, and functional connectivity. We compare these features with those of corresponding VOTC category-specific patches. Our findings reveal that face- and color-specific patches in the OFC follow a similar medial-lateral organization to those in the VOTC and form continuous functional gradients with VOTC patches. These results suggest that the OFC contains a topographic organization similar to, but at a higher hierarchical level than, the VOTC object categorization system.