Highlights•Cortical representation about conspecifics is largely stable regardless of stimulus modality (viewing faces vs reading names).•Diverse kinds of knowledge about other people falls into three macro categories of cortical signatures: memories (episodic and biographical knowledge), traits (physical and social knowledge) and knowledge of names.•Some regions involved in person-knowledge (IFG and OFC) change their functional coordination patterns within the network, while others (regions involved in internalized cognition) maintain stable functional coupling.