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Poster Session C: Friday, August 15, 2:00 – 5:00 pm, de Brug & E‑Hall

Feedback signals can explain spike-silent working memory traces in visual cortex

Noa N. Krause¹, Rosanne L. Rademaker²; ¹Ernst Struengmann Institute for Neuroscience, ²Max Planck Society

Presenter: Noa N. Krause

Storage of visual memories is known to engage early visual cortex (EVC), where mnemonic representations are presumed to be spike-silent. Possibly, such spike-silent representations rely on short-term synaptic plasticity (STSP) traces laid down by previous sensory inputs. However, STSP cannot account for selection of information from working memory on the basis of external information, and is not robust against visual distraction. As such, it fails to explain data from neuroimaging studies in humans, which shows that representations recovered from EVC are mnemonic in nature, that is, only task-relevant information can be recovered. Additionally, these traces return even after temporary quenching from visual distraction. We show that feedback projections from more anterior cortical sites, known to reflect memories via sustained spiking, can explain these findings that STSP cannot account for.

Topic Area: Visual Processing & Computational Vision

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