RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Working Memory Representations in Visual Cortex Mediate the Effects of Distraction
JF bioRxiv
FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
SP 2021.02.01.429259
DO 10.1101/2021.02.01.429259
A1 Grace E. Hallenbeck
A1 Thomas C. Sprague
A1 Masih Rahmati
A1 Kartik K. Sreenivasan
A1 Clayton E. Curtis
YR 2021
UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2021/02/02/2021.02.01.429259.abstract
AB Although the contents of working memory (WM) can be decoded from activity in visual cortex, these representations may play a limited role if they are not robust to distraction. Here, we used model-based fMRI to estimate the impact that a distracting visual task had on WM representations in several visual field maps in visual and frontoparietal association cortex. Distraction caused the fidelity of WM representations in all maps to briefly dip when both the memorandum and distractor were jointly encoded by the population activities. Moreover, distraction induced small biases in memory errors which were predicted by biases in neural decoding in early visual cortex, but not other regions. Although distraction briefly disrupts WM representations, the widespread redundancy with which WM information is encoded may protect against catastrophic loss. In early visual cortex, nonetheless, the neural representation of information in WM and behavioral performance were intertwined, solidifying its importance in memory.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.