Longitudinal development of category representations in ventral temporal cortex predicts word and face recognition

Regions in ventral temporal cortex (VTC) that are involved in visual recognition of categories like words and faces, undergo differential development during childhood. However, categories are also represented in distributed responses across VTC. How do distributed category representations develop and relate to behavioral changes in recognition? Here, we used fMRI to longitudinally measure the development of distributed responses across VTC to 10 categories in school-age children over several years. Our results reveal both strengthening and weakening of category representations with age, which was mainly driven by changes across category-selective voxels. Representations became particularly more distinct for words in the left hemisphere and for faces bilaterally. Critically, distinctiveness for words and faces across category-selective voxels in left and right lateral VTC, respectively, predicted individual children’s word and face recognition performance. These results suggest that the development of distributed VTC representations has behavioral ramifications and advance our understanding of prolonged cortical development during childhood.