Publications

Under Preparation

Tyagi, C.G, Natu, V.S., Ortiz, D., Perez, K., Horenziak, J., Liao, C., Grill-Spector, K. Functional Development of Visual Category-Selective Regions from Infancy to Childhood is Linked to Microstructural Proliferation.

Natu, V.S., Tyagi, C., Yan, Y., Tung, S., Kubota, E., Akbiyik, S., Wu, H., Mezer, A., Drori, E., Wang, N., Liao, C., Setsompop, K., Grill-Spector. K. Putamen microstructural growth and corticostriatal connectivity provide links for infant development and identifying signs of autism.

2026:

Bacmeister, C.M, Natu, V.S., Rezai, A., Tung, S.S., Tyagi, C., Yan, X., Braun, K., Mui, M., Liao, C., Wang, N., Cao, X., Wu, H., Johansson, P., Enjeder, A., Beckett, A., Walker, E., Feinberg, D., Setsompop, K., Paredes, M., & Grill-Spector, K. Multiphasic myelination and dendritic growth modulate qMRI signals in human visual cortex. BioRxiv. https://doi.org/10.64898/2026.05.03.722280.

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.