Distributed patterns of activity in sensory cortex reflect the precision of multiple items maintained in visual short-term memory
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Traditionally, load sensitivity of sustained, elevated activity has been taken as an index of storage for a limited number of items in visual short-term memory (VSTM). Recently, studies have demonstrated that the contents of a single item held in VSTM can be decoded from early visual cortex, despite the fact that these areas do not exhibit elevated, sustained activity. It is unknown, however, whether the patterns of neural activity decoded from sensory cortex change as a function of load, as one would expect from a region storing multiple representations. Here, we use multivoxel pattern analysis to examine the neural representations of VSTM in humans across multiple memory loads. In an important extension of previous findings, our results demonstrate that the contents of VSTM can be decoded from areas that exhibit a transient response to visual stimuli, but not from regions that exhibit elevated, sustained load-sensitive delay-period activity. Moreover, the neural information present in these transiently activated areas decreases significantly with increasing load, indicating load sensitivity of the patterns of activity that support VSTM maintenance. Importantly, the decrease in classification performance as a function of load is correlated with within-subject changes in mnemonic resolution. These findings indicate that distributed patterns of neural activity in putatively sensory visual cortex support the representation and precision of information in VSTM.
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Decoding accuracy was higher for people who could more accurately form mental images during both working memory and mental imagery tasks.
“Interestingly, decoding accuracy was higher for people who could more accurately form mental images during both tasks (WM: r = 20.51,p = 0.0053; IM: r = 20.37,p = 0.039; Figure S2), providing a strong link between mental imagery ability and the precision of population-level responses [21,22].”
From Shared representations for working memory and mental imagery in early visual cortex (2013) · cites this paper as [21]
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- Authors
- Emrich, S. M., Riggall, A. C., LaRocque, J. J., & Postle, B. R.
- Affiliations
- University of Wisconsin–Madison (US)
- University of Wisconsin System (US)
- Venue
- The Journal of Neuroscience
- Publisher
- Society for Neuroscience
- Published
- 2013-04-10
- Volume
- 33
- Issue
- 15
- Pages
- 6516-6523
- ISSN
- 0270-6474 (ISSN-L)
- 1529-2401
- PMC
- PMC3664518
- OpenAlex
- W2077707797
- Cited by
- 343
- References
- 64
- Citations by year
- 2026: 12 · 2025: 18 · 2024: 26 · 2023: 22 · 2022: 17 · 2021: 34 · 2020: 30 · 2019: 23 · 2018: 27 · 2017: 33 · 2016: 31 · 2015: 27 · 2014: 32 · 2013: 9
- FWCI
- 17.78
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Journal of Neuroscience (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-sa)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (acceptedVersion)
- Funders
- National Institutes of Health
- National Institute of Mental Health (R01MH064498)
- National Institute of General Medical Sciences (T32GM008692)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Visual perception and processing mechanisms
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neural dynamics and brain function
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Memory Processes and Influences
- Keywords
- visual short-term memory, memory load, early visual cortex, multi-voxel pattern analysis
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Brain Mapping, Female, Humans, Image Processing, Computer-Assisted, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Male, Memory, Short-Term, Photic Stimulation, Psychomotor Performance, Visual Cortex, Visual Perception
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