Publications

2026:

Perez, K., Allen, A., Tyagi, C., Tung, S.S., Fascendini, B., Yan, X., Horenziak, J., Ortiz, D., Wu, H., Grill-Spector, K., & Natu, V.S. (2026). Hierarchical microstructural tissue growth of the gray and white matter of human visual cortex during the first year of life. Brain Structure and Function, 231, 15. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00429-025-03054-9 . *Co-senior authors

Tung, S.S., Yan X., Fascendini, B., Tyagi, C., Reyes, C.M., Ducre, K., Perez, K., Allen, A., Horenziak, J., Wu, H., Keil, B., Natu, V.S.,* & Grill-Spector, K*. (2026). How infant brains fold: Sulcal deepening is linked to development of sulcal span, thickness, curvature, and microstructure. Nature Communications Biology. https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-026-09536-8. *Co-senior authors

2025:

Kubota, E., Yan, X., Tung, S., Fascendini, B., Tyagi, C.,  Duhameau, S., Ortiz, D., Grotheer, M., Natu, V.S., Keil, B., Grill-Spector, K. (2025). White matter connections of human ventral temporal cortex are organized by cytoarchitecture, eccentricity and category-selectivity from birth. Nature Human Behavior. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-025-02116-6.

2024:

Emily Kubota, Xiaoqian Yan, X., Tung, S., Fascendini, B., Tyagi, C.,  Duhameau, S., Ortiz, D., Grotheer, M., Natu, V.S., Keil, B., & Grill-Spector, K. (2024). White matter connections of human ventral temporal cortex are organized by cytoarchitecture, eccentricity, and category-selectivity from birth. BioRxiv.

2023:

Nordt, M., Gomez, J., Natu, V.S., Rezai, A.A., Finzi, D., Kular, H., Grill-Spector, K. (2023). Longitudinal development of category representations in ventral temporal cortex predicts word and face recognition. Nature Communications, 14 (1), 8010. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-43146-w.

Kubota, E., Grotheer, M., Finzi, D., Natu V.S., Gomez, J., & Grill-Spector, K. (2022). bioRxiv. White matter connections of high-level visual areas predict cytoarchitecture better than category-selectivity. Cerebral Cortex, 33 (6): 2485–2506. doi: 10.1093/cercor/bhac221.

2022:

Grotheer, M., Rosenke, M., Wu, H., Kular, H., Querdasi, F.R. Natu, V.S., Yeatman, J.D., Grill-Spector, K. (2022). White matter myelination during early infancy is linked to spatial gradients and myelin content at birth. Nature Communications. https://doi-org.stanford.idm.oclc.org/10.1038/s41467-022-28326-4.

2021:

Natu, V.S., Rosenke, M., Querdasi, F.R., Kular, H., Wu, H., Grotheer, M., Berman, S., Mezer, A.A., Grill-Spector, K. (2021). Infants’ cortex undergoes microstructural growth coupled with myelination during development. Nature Communications Biology. https://doi-org.stanford.idm.oclc.org/10.1038/s42003-021-02706-w.

Nordt, M., J Gomez, J., Natu, V.S., Rezai, A.A., Finzi, D., Kular, H., Grill-Spector. K.  Cortical recycling in high-level visual cortex during childhood development. Nature Human Behavior. doi: 10.1038/s41562-021-01141-5.

2020:

Natu, V.S., Arcaro, M., Barnett, M., Gomez, J., Jeska, B., Livingstone, M., Grill-Spector, K., & Weiner, K (2020). Sulcal Depth in the Medial Ventral Temporal Cortex Predicts the Location of a Place-Selective Region in Macaques, Children, and Adults. Cerebral Cortex. https://doi.org/10.1093/cercor/bhaa203.

2019:

Natu, V.S., Gomez, J., Barnett, M., Jeska, B., Kirilina, E., Jaeger, C., Zhen, Z., Cox, S., Weiner, K., Weiskopf, N., & Kalanit Grill-Spector. (2019) Apparent thinning of visual cortex during childhood is associated with myelination. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.  https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1904931116.

Natu, V.S., Lin, J-J, Burks A., Arora, A., Rugg, M & Lega, B. (2019). Stimulation of the posterior cingulate impairs episodic memory encoding. Journal of Neuroscience. https://doi.org/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0698-19.2019.

Hughes, B., Camp, N., Gomez, J., Natu, V.S., Grill-Spector, K, & Eberhardt, J. (2019). Neural adaptation to faces reveals racial out-group homogeneity effects. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1822084116.

Gomez, J., Drain, A., Jeska, B., Natu, V.S., Barnett, M., & Grill-Spector, K. (2019) Development of population receptive fields improves spatial coding. NeuroImage, 188, 59-69.

 2018:

Gomez, J., Natu, V.S., Jeska, B., Barnett, M., Grill-Spector, K (2018). Development differentially sculpts population receptive fields across human visual cortex. Nature Communications. doi: 10.1038/s41467-018-03166-3.

Natu, V.S., Gomez, J., Barnett, M., Jeska, B., Kirilina, E., Jaeger, C., Zhen, Z., Cox, S., Weiner, K., Weiskopf, N., &  Kalanit Grill-Spector. (2018). Apparent thinning of visual cortex during childhood is associated with myelination, not pruning. Bioxviv, doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/368274.

Nordt, M., Gomez, J., Natu, V.S., Jeska, B., Barnett, B., & Grill-Spector, K. (2018). Learning to read increases the informativeness of distributed ventral temporal responses. Cerebral Cortex. https://doi.org/10.1093/cercor/bhy178.

Weiner, K.S., Natu, V.S., & Grill-Spector, KS (2018). On object selectivity and the anatomy of the human fusiform gyrus. NeuroImage. doi: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2018.02.040.

Grill-Spector, K., Weiner, K.S., Gomez, J., Stigliani, A., Natu V.S. (2018). The functional neuroanatomy of face perception: from brain measurements to deep neural networks. Journal of the Royal Society Interface Focus.  http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsfs.2018.0013.

 2017:

Weiner, K., Barnett, M.A., Witthoft, N., Golarai, G., Stigliani, A., Kay, K.N., Gomez, J., Natu, V.S., Amunts, K., Zilles, K., Grill-Spector, K (2017). Defining the most probable location of the parahippocampal place area using cortex-based alignment and cross-validation. NeuroImage, doi: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2017.04.040.

Gomez, J., Michael B., Natu, V.S., Mezer, A., Palomero-Gallagher, N., Weiner, K.S., Amunts, K., Zilles, K., & Grill-Spector, K. (2017). Microstructural proliferation in human cortex is coupled with the development of face processing. Science, 355, 68-71.

2016:

Natu, V.S., Barnett, M., Hartley, J., Gomez, J., & Grill-Spector, K. (2016).  Development of neural sensitivity to face identity correlates with perceptual discriminability. Journal of Neuroscience, 36, 10893–10907.

2015:

Natu,V.S., & O’Toole, A., J. (2015). Spatio-temporal changes in neural response patterns to faces varying in visual familiarity. NeuroImage, 108, 1-11.

 2014:

Rice, A., Phillips, P. J., Natu, V.S., An, X., & O'Toole, A. J. (2014). Unaware person recognition from the body when face identification fails. Psychological Science, doi: 10.1177/0956797613492986.

O’Toole, A., J, Natu, V.S., An, X., Rice, A., Ryland, J., & Jonathan, P., (2014). The neural representation of faces and bodies in motion and at rest. NeuroImage, 1,1-11.

Norell, K., Läthén, K. B, Bergstrom, K. P., Rice, A., Natu, V.S., O’Toole, A. (2014). The effect of image quality and forensic expertise in facial image comparison. Journal of Forensic Sciences, 60, 331–340.

2013:

Natu, V.S., & O’Toole, A., J. (2013). Neural perspectives on the other-race effect. Visual Cognition, 21, 1081-1095.

O’Toole, A., J. & Natu, V.S., (2013). Computational perspectives on the other-race effect. Visual Cognition, 9, 1121-1137.

2012:

O'Toole, A., J., Xiaobo, A., Dunlop, J. Natu, V.S., Philips, J. (2012). Comparing Face recognition algorithms to humans on challenging tasks, ACM Transactions, 9, doi:10.1145/2355598.2355599.

2011:

Natu, V.S., & O'Toole, A.J. (2011). Neural processing of familiar and unfamiliar faces. A review and synopsis. British Journal of Psychology. 102, 726-747.

Natu, V.S., Raboy, D., & O'Toole, A.J. (2011). Neural correlates of own- and other-race face perception: Spatial and temporal response differences. NeuroImage, 54, 2547-2555.

 2010:

Natu, V.S., Jiang, F., Narvekar, A., Keshwari, S., Volker, B., O'Toole, A.J. (2010). Dissociable neural patterns of facial identity across changes in viewpoint. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 7, 1570-1582.

Prior to 2010:

Polyn, S. M., Natu, V. S., Cohen, J. D., & Norman, K. A. (2005). Category-specific cortical activity precedes recall during memory search. Science, 310, 1963-1966. 

Natu, V.S., Mueller, K.M. Jiang, F. & O'Toole, A. (2007). Transfer of adaptation after-effects between simple visual forms and faces. Journal of Vision, 7, 884, doi:10.1167/7.9.884.

Howard, M. W., & Natu, V.S. (2005). Place from time: Reconstructing position from the temporal context model, Neural Networks, 18, 1150-1162.