Human frontoparietal cortex represents behaviorally-relevant target status during invariant object recognition

Searching for items that are useful given current goals, or “target” recognition, requires an observer to generalize across identity-preserving transformations such as viewpoint changes, as well as to incorporate contextual information. While past work has found target recognition signals in areas of ventral visual cortex, it is not clear whether these signals support performance on demanding tasks that require invariant, flexible search. Here, we used a task that required subjects to match novel object stimuli based on invariant features (identity and viewpoint). Based on multivariate fMRI analyses, the data suggest that the multiple-demand (MD) network, including sub-regions of parietal and frontal cortex, encodes invariant representations of an object’s status as a target. Furthermore, target information in MD regions, but not early or ventral visual cortex, was higher on correct compared to incorrect trials, suggesting a strong link between MD target signals and behavior.