Rapid concerted switching of the neural code in the inferotemporal cortex

. Here, we report that tuning can instead shift rapidly and coherently across a neural population, enabling a dynamic transition from detecting a broad category to discriminating individual exemplars. We set out to address a longstanding debate in visual neuroscience about whether the inferotemporal cortex uses a specialized code for specific object categories or a general-purpose code that applies to all objects. We found that face-selective cells in macaque inferotemporal cortex initially adopted a general code optimized for face detection. However, after a rapid concerted population event lasting less than 20 ms, the neural code transformed into a face-specific one, with two striking features: response…