Distributed representations of behaviour-derived object dimensions in the human visual system
A comprehensive characterization of how the brain organizes our understanding of the objects we see.
Neuroscience · Psychology · Computation
Oliver Contier
I study how the human brain represents the world, combining large-scale behavior, neuroimaging, and computational models.
Selected work
About
My work focuses on visual cognition and object representations: how the brain transforms complex sensory input into neural codes that reflect experience and support everyday behavior. I use large-scale neuroimaging and naturalistic designs in combination with modeling approaches that connect brain data to behavior and modern AI systems of vision and language.
Another focus is reproducible, community-driven neuroscience: building, sharing, and maintaining open datasets that help drive discovery.
Background & activities
Education
- Doctorate (PhD, Dr. rer. nat.), University of Leipzig · 2025
- Max Planck School of Cognition (advanced graduate program) · 2019/20
- M. Sc. Psychology, Otto-von-Guericke University Magdeburg · 2018
- B. Sc. Psychology, Trier University · 2014
Awards
- Open Science Prize, Interest Group for Open and Reproducible Research (IGOR) (Division of Biological and Neuropsychology, German Psychological Association), 2022
Reviewer activities
Communications Biology, Nature Communications, Scientific Data, Imaging Neuroscience, In-Mind.
Publications
Full publications
Peer-reviewed
- Contier, O., Baker, C.I. & Hebart, M.N. (2024). Distributed representations of behaviour-derived object dimensions in the human visual system. Nature Human Behaviour. doi
- Kalyani, A., Contier, O., Klemm, L., Azañon, E., Schreiber, S., Speck, O., Reichert, C., Kuehn, E. (2023). Reduced dimension stimulus decoding and column-based modeling reveal architectural differences of primary somatosensory finger maps between younger and older adults. NeuroImage, 283(120430). doi
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Hebart, M.N.*, Contier, O.*, Teichmann, L.*, Rockter, A.H., Zheng, C.Y., Kidder, A., Corriveau, A., Vaziri-Pashkam, M., Baker, C.I. (2023).
THINGS-data, a multimodal collection of large-scale datasets for investigating object representations in human brain and behavior.
eLife. 12:e82580.
doi
(* equal contribution)
- Fritz, T. H., Schütte, F., Steixner, A., Contier, O., Obrig, H., Villringer, A. (2019). Musical meaning modulates word acquisition. Brain and Language, 190(3). doi
- Fritz, T. H., Bowling, D. L., Contier, O., Grant, J., Schneider, L., Lederer, A., Hoer, F., Busch, E., & Villringer, A. (2018). Musical agency during exercise decreases pain. Frontiers in Psychology, 8(2312). doi
- Sharifian, F., Contier, O., Preuschhof, C., & Pollmann, S. (2017). Reward modulation of contextual cueing: Repeated context overshadows repeated target location. Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics, 79(7). doi
Preprints
- St-Laurent, M., Pinsard, B., Contier, O., DuPre, E., Seeliger, K., Borghesani, V., Boyle, J. A., Bellec, L., & Hebart, M. N. (2025). CNeuroMod-THINGS, a densely-sampled fMRI dataset for visual neuroscience. arXiv. arXiv
Conference posters & talks
- Contier, O., Fujimori, S., Seeliger, K., Murty, N A. R., Hebart, M. (2023, May). Revealing interpretable object dimensions from a high-throughput model of the fusiform face area. Journal of Vision, 23(23), 5356.
- Stoinski, L. M., Contier, O., Konkle, T., Hebart, M. N. (2023, May). Revisiting the animacy, size, and curvature organization of human visual cortex. Journal of Vision, 23(23), 5072.
- St-Laurent, M., Pinsard, B., Contier, O., Seeliger, K., Borghesani, V., Boyle, J., Bellec, P., Hebart, M. N. (2023, May). cneuromod-things: a large-scale fMRI dataset for task- and data-driven assessment of object representation and visual memory recognition in the human brain. Journal of Vision, 23(23), 5424.
- Contier, O., Teichmann, L., Baker, C. I., Hebart, M. N. (2022, June). The THINGS initiative: a global large-scale effort for the representative study of objects in brains, behavior, and computational models. 47. Jahrestagung Psychologie und Gehirn 2022, Freiburg
- Contier, O., Hebart, M. N. (2022, May). Distributed representation of behaviorally-relevant object dimensions in the human brain. Journal of Vision, 22(14), 3951.
- Contier, O., Hebart, M. N., Dickter, A. H., Teichmann, L., Kidder, A., Corriveau, A., Zheng, C., Vaziri-Pashkam, M., Baker, C. I. (2021, November). THINGS-fMRI/MEG: A densely sampled multimodal neuroimaging dataset of brain responses to a broad range of natural object images. Society for Neuroscience 50th Annual Meeting, Chicago.
- Contier, O., Hebart, M. N., Dickter, A. H., Teichmann, L., Kidder, A., Corriveau, A., Zheng, C., Vaziri-Pashkam, M., Baker, C. I. (2021, September). THINGS-fMRI/MEG: A large-scale multimodal neuroimaging dataset of responses to natural object images. Journal of Vision, 21(9), 2633-2633. doi
- Kalyani, A., Contier, O., Reichert, C., Azañon, E., Kuehn, E. (2021, June). Shared response modelling of S1 digit representations in younger and older adults using 7T fMRI. Organization for Human Brain Mapping (OHBM) 2021 Annual Meeting, Seoul.
- Contier, O., Kuehn, E., Hanke, M. (2020, June). Shared response modelling of somatosensory digit representations using 7T fMRI. Organization for Human Brain Mapping (OHBM) 2020 Annual Meeting, Montreal. zenodo
- Contier, O., Visconti di Oleggio Castello, M., Gobbini, M. I., Halchenko, Y. O. (2018, June). Temporal dynamics and effective connectivity in the distributed system of familiar face processing. Organization for Human Brain Mapping (OHBM) 2018 Annual Meeting, Singapore. link