TY  - JOUR
AU  - Degutis, Jonas Karolis
AU  - Weber, Simon
AU  - Soch, Joram
AU  - Haynes, John-Dylan
TI  - Neural dynamics of visual working memory representation during sensory distraction.
JO  - eLife
VL  - 13
SN  - 2050-084X
CY  - Cambridge
PB  - eLife Sciences Publications
M1  - DZNE-2025-00750
SP  - RP99290
PY  - 2025
AB  - Recent studies have provided evidence for the concurrent encoding of sensory percepts and visual working memory (VWM) contents across visual areas; however, it has remained unclear how these two types of representations are concurrently present. Here, we reanalyzed an open-access fMRI dataset where participants memorized a sensory stimulus while simultaneously being presented with sensory distractors. First, we found that the VWM code in several visual regions did not fully generalize between different time points, suggesting a dynamic code. A more detailed analysis revealed that this was due to shifts in coding spaces across time. Second, we collapsed neural signals across time to assess the degree of interference between VWM contents and sensory distractors, specifically by testing the alignment of their encoding spaces. We find that VWM and feature-matching sensory distractors are encoded in coding spaces that do not fully overlap, but the separation decreases when distractors negatively impact behavioral performance in recalling the target. Together, these results indicate a role of dynamic coding and temporally stable coding spaces in helping multiplex perception and VWM within visual areas.
KW  - Humans
KW  - Memory, Short-Term: physiology
KW  - Visual Perception: physiology
KW  - Magnetic Resonance Imaging
KW  - Male
KW  - Female
KW  - Adult
KW  - Young Adult
KW  - Photic Stimulation
KW  - Attention: physiology
KW  - dynamic coding (Other)
KW  - human (Other)
KW  - neural subspaces (Other)
KW  - neuroscience (Other)
KW  - sensory distraction (Other)
KW  - working memory (Other)
LB  - PUB:(DE-HGF)16
C6  - pmid:40552615
C2  - pmc:PMC12187136
DO  - DOI:10.7554/eLife.99290
UR  - https://pub.dzne.de/record/279373
ER  -