Cliona O'Doherty
@clionaod.bsky.social
Postdoc at Stanford | Developmental NeuroAI
We didn't look at faces vs. other categories. But previous work (www.cell.com/current-biol... and elifesciences.org/articles/100... for example) has shown this is present from an early age. In another of our tasks not presented in this article, we find similar patterns for faces using videos.
www.cell.com
February 2, 2026 at 8:17 PM
We didn't look at faces vs. other categories. But previous work (www.cell.com/current-biol... and elifesciences.org/articles/100... for example) has shown this is present from an early age. In another of our tasks not presented in this article, we find similar patterns for faces using videos.
Of course! The dataset, including our stimuli, is openly available. You can find it here: openneuro.org/datasets/ds0...
OpenNeuro
openneuro.org
February 2, 2026 at 8:15 PM
Of course! The dataset, including our stimuli, is openly available. You can find it here: openneuro.org/datasets/ds0...
7/7 Funded by @erc.europa.eu[email protected]. Thank you to the families, the Coombe & Rotunda hospitals, and the team: @rhodricusack.bsky.social, @ainedineen.bsky.social,Anna Truzzi,Graham King @lorijn.bsky.social,@chiarac.bsky.social,@ennadarcy.bsky.social,@diedrichsenjorn.bsky.social +more!
February 2, 2026 at 4:00 PM
7/7 Funded by @erc.europa.eu[email protected]. Thank you to the families, the Coombe & Rotunda hospitals, and the team: @rhodricusack.bsky.social, @ainedineen.bsky.social,Anna Truzzi,Graham King @lorijn.bsky.social,@chiarac.bsky.social,@ennadarcy.bsky.social,@diedrichsenjorn.bsky.social +more!
6/7 Our results further highlight the first year of life as a time of intricate brain function. Infants possess the foundations of visual cognition to group the world from very early on. Read more in Nature Neuroscience! 📖🔗 www.nature.com/articles/s41....
Infants have rich visual categories in ventrotemporal cortex at 2 months of age - Nature Neuroscience
Using infant fMRI, the authors show that, by 2 months of age, representations in high-level visual cortex encode visual categories that align with deep neural networks, and lateral object-selective re...
www.nature.com
February 2, 2026 at 4:00 PM
6/7 Our results further highlight the first year of life as a time of intricate brain function. Infants possess the foundations of visual cognition to group the world from very early on. Read more in Nature Neuroscience! 📖🔗 www.nature.com/articles/s41....
5/7 Not all visual regions mature early. 🚧 We found that LO, a key object-selective region in adults, is much later to show reliable visual representations. This suggests non-hierarchical development: category structure appears in the ventrotemporal cortex prior to the lateral occipital cortex.
February 2, 2026 at 4:00 PM
5/7 Not all visual regions mature early. 🚧 We found that LO, a key object-selective region in adults, is much later to show reliable visual representations. This suggests non-hierarchical development: category structure appears in the ventrotemporal cortex prior to the lateral occipital cortex.
4/7 👶 Awake fMRI was successful in 97% of infants at 2 months of age. When infants returned at 9 months, we were successful 64% of the time. Many babies completed 10+ mins of awake scanning, and motion was present - but manageable. The dataset is available at openneuro.org/datasets/ds0....
February 2, 2026 at 4:00 PM
4/7 👶 Awake fMRI was successful in 97% of infants at 2 months of age. When infants returned at 9 months, we were successful 64% of the time. Many babies completed 10+ mins of awake scanning, and motion was present - but manageable. The dataset is available at openneuro.org/datasets/ds0....
3/7 How complex are these visual representations? Using DNNs, we found the expected hierarchical match between the developing brain and neural network models. Infant VVC was most similar to deep layers of fully trained models, revealing that objects are processed using high-level features. 🤖📊
February 2, 2026 at 4:00 PM
3/7 How complex are these visual representations? Using DNNs, we found the expected hierarchical match between the developing brain and neural network models. Infant VVC was most similar to deep layers of fully trained models, revealing that objects are processed using high-level features. 🤖📊
2/7 Using RSA, we find that the infant brain can process objects with a high degree of feature complexity. At 2 months of age, VVC has distinct response patterns for category and animacy - before they are detectable in behavior. This category structure is refined throughout the first year.
February 2, 2026 at 4:00 PM
2/7 Using RSA, we find that the infant brain can process objects with a high degree of feature complexity. At 2 months of age, VVC has distinct response patterns for category and animacy - before they are detectable in behavior. This category structure is refined throughout the first year.