Visual cortex contains regions of selectivity for domains of ecological importance. Food is an evolutionarily critical category whose visual heterogeneity may make the identification of selectivity more challenging. We investigate neural responsiveness to food using natural images combined with large-scale human fMRI. Leveraging the improved sensitivity of modern designs and statistical analyses, we identify two food-selective regions in the ventral visual cortex. Our results are robust across 8 subjects from the Natural Scenes Dataset (NSD), multiple independent image sets and multiple analysis methods. We then test our findings of food selectivity in an fMRI “localizer” using grayscale food images. These independent results confirm the existence of food selectivity in ventral visual cortex and help illuminate why earlier studies may have failed to do so. Our identification of food-selective regions stands alongside prior findings of functional selectivity and adds to our understanding of the organization of knowledge within the human visual system.

Ventral visual cortex contains regions of selectivity for domains of ecological importance. Food is an ecologically and evolutionarily important category, whose high degree of visual variability may make the identification of selectivity more challenging. We investigated neural responsiveness to food using natural images combined with large-scale human neuroimaging. Leveraging the improved sensitivity of modern designs and statistical analysis methods, we identified two food-selective regions in the ventral visual cortex. Our results were robust across 8 subjects, multiple independent sets of images and multiple analysis methods. Additionally, these results were not due to stimulus properties or saliency. The identification of food-selective regions stands alongside prior findings of functional selectivity and provides an important addition to our understanding of the organization of knowledge within the human visual system.