Speaker
Description
Previous studies in working memory have identified brain regions that temporarily store simple visual features like orientation or color. In contrast, it remains unknown which brain areas temporarily store information about how those features are bound into an object. Participants (N=20) performed four separate functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) sessions. They memorized two objects composed of two visual features each: color and motion direction. We manipulated the feature bindings within these objects across trials. Our procedure allowed us to isolate memorized binding information by comparing delay-related fMRI activity patterns between trials with identical features but the opposite binding. Despite the high memory load of multiple features and their bindings, we successfully decoded trial-specific binding information from the memory-related activity in the early visual cortex (V1-V4). These novel findings indicate that early visual cortex retains specific information about the way these features are bound together.