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Past and present goals are represented concurrently during visual search.
Damian Koevoet1,2, Dirk Van Moorselaar1, Edward Awh3
1Experimental Psychology, Helmholtz Institute, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands.
Plos Biology
|May 4, 2026
Summary
Neural activity reveals how past experiences influence current visual search. Even when irrelevant, prior target locations are reactivated, showing distinct goal- and history-driven selection processes.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Neuroscience
- Neuroscience
- Visual Perception
Background:
- Visual selection is guided by goal-, stimulus-, and history-driven processes.
- The interplay between goal- and history-driven selection remains poorly understood.
- Distinct neural mechanisms are hypothesized for goal- (persistent firing) and history-driven (activity-silent) selection.
Purpose of the Study:
- To simultaneously track and compare goal- and history-driven influences on visual search using EEG decoding.
- To investigate the neural representation of past experiences during ongoing visual selection.
- To determine if history-driven selection mechanisms are flexible or inflexible.
Main Methods:
- Electroencephalography (EEG) decoding was employed to analyze neural signals during visual search tasks.
- A history-driven signal was established by decoding the preceding trial's target location.
- Simultaneous neural representations of current and preceding target locations were assessed.
Main Results:
- Neural decoding successfully tracked the target location from the preceding trial, confirming a history-driven signal.
- Distinct neural representations for the current and preceding target locations were observed simultaneously.
- Prior target locations were reactivated even when participants focused on an upcoming target, demonstrating inflexible retrieval.
- This reactivation occurred irrespective of task relevance, highlighting automatic influence of past experiences.
Conclusions:
- Goal- and history-driven visual selection processes are neurally distinct.
- Both goal- and history-driven influences are represented in parallel within the brain.
- Past experiences influence current search in an inflexible manner, even when task-irrelevant.
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