26.06.2026 How Our Brain Is Both Specialized and Flexible

JLU Researchers Investigate Dimensions of Visual Perception – “Specialized Areas” in the Brain Contribute More to General Image Processing Than Previously Thought

How does our brain manage to reliably recognize people, objects, and places while at the same time responding flexibly to ever-changing situations? This question is the focus of a study by researchers at Justus Liebig University Giessen (JLU), which has now been published in the journal "Journal of Neuroscience". It shows that our brain is both specialized and flexible.

For a long time, many researchers assumed that the human brain has clearly defined “specialized areas” for perception—such as for faces, bodies, or places. These areas show particularly strong activity when we see precisely these categories. The new study now shows that these specialized regions are more versatile than previously thought. They process multiple types of visual information simultaneously, which can be flexibly combined.

The research team analyzed one of the largest datasets to date of functional MRI scans related to natural image perception. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) can be used to measure which areas of the brain become active while people perform specific tasks. In the study, participants viewed a wide variety of everyday images while their brain activity was recorded.

Using a data-driven analysis method, the researchers searched for recurring patterns of activity in the brain. In the process, they identified several “dimensions” of image processing—that is, fundamental image characteristics such as the presence of people, faces, or hands, or whether a scene takes place indoors or outdoors.

The result can be illustrated with the image of a seascape: Until now, one mainly saw individual islands rising out of the water—the well-known specialized regions. With their study, the researchers have, in a sense, dived beneath the water’s surface and were able to discern a much more complex landscape there. “These same dimensions extend as interconnected patterns across large parts of the visual system, thereby linking the ‘islands’ together,” says lead author Leonard van Dyck. “The visual system is apparently not divided into strictly separate regions. Even areas that were previously considered highly specialized likely contribute far more to image processing than just their preferred category.”

Using fMRI scans, the researchers were able to observe directly in the brain that specialized regions utilize multiple dimensions that can be combined for very different tasks—meaning these dimensions are not merely a theoretical construct. “It is precisely this interplay of specialization and flexibility that could explain how our visual system remains both precise and remarkably adaptable,” says Prof. Dr. Katharina Dobs, professor of applied computer science with a focus on cognitive systems at the Institute of Computer Science at JLU.

The study thus resolves an apparent contradiction: Specialized brain regions and a shared processing system are not opposites, but rather two sides of the same multidimensional organization. “This principle not only deepens our understanding of human vision,” says Prof. Dr. Martin Hebart, Professor of Computational Cognitive Neuroscience and Quantitative Psychiatry at the JLU School of Medicine. “It could also serve as a model for the development of artificial image processing systems.”

Publication
van Dyck, L. E., Hebart, M. N., Dobs, K. (2026).
Multidimensional feature tuning in category-selective areas of the human visual cortex.
Journal of Neuroscience.
https://doi.org/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0038-26.2026