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Coexisting representations of sensory and mnemonic information in human visual cortex
Rosanne L Rademaker1,2, Chaipat Chunharas3,4, John T Serences5,6,7
1Department of Psychology, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA. rosanne.rademaker@gmail.com.
Nature Neuroscience
|July 3, 2019
Summary
Early visual cortex supports high-resolution working memory by representing stored information alongside new sensory inputs. Distractions disrupt this, impairing recall, suggesting a crucial role for visual areas in maintaining memory.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Cognitive Neuroscience
- Visual Perception
Background:
- Maintaining information in working memory while processing new sensory input is crucial for navigation.
- Previous research suggested new sensory information might overwrite existing working memory content in early visual cortex.
- The neural mechanisms underlying the simultaneous representation of working memory and sensory input remain unclear.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the capacity of early visual cortex to represent simultaneously stored working memory information and incoming sensory data.
- To examine the impact of distraction on mnemonic representations in early visual cortex and subsequent behavioral recall.
- To explore the role of the intraparietal sulcus in representing actively remembered information.
Main Methods:
- Utilized population-level response patterns in early visual cortex to decode representations of working memory contents and sensory inputs.
- Conducted behavioral experiments measuring recall performance following distraction.
- Analyzed neural representations in the intraparietal sulcus during memory tasks.
Main Results:
- Demonstrated region-wide multiplexing in early visual cortex, with neural populations representing both working memory contents and new sensory inputs.
- Found that distraction disrupts mnemonic information in early visual cortex, correlating with decreased behavioral recall.
- Observed that the intraparietal sulcus represents actively remembered information in a transformed format, excluding task-irrelevant sensory inputs.
Conclusions:
- Early visual areas exhibit multiplexing capabilities, supporting high-resolution working memory alongside ongoing sensory processing.
- Working memory representations in early visual cortex are vulnerable to distraction, impacting behavioral outcomes.
- The intraparietal sulcus plays a distinct role in actively maintaining remembered information, separate from irrelevant sensory data.
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