Extrastriate cortex and medial temporal lobe regions respond differentially to visual feature overlap within preferred stimulus category

► MTL was activated more when viewing stimuli with a large number of overlapping features. ► The opposite pattern was found in extrastriate regions. ► Increased MTL activity to high visual similarity was seen only for effective visual categories. ► Perirhinal cortex-faces and objects; Posterior hippocampus-scenes. ► Confirms regions in the VVS and MTL are engaged differentially by visual complexity.