ArticleNature communications2021
Working memory representations in visual cortex mediate distraction effects.
Article in Nature communications, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to 6 registered trials, which are not on this map. Cited by 55 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Probing the Role of Feature Dimension Maps in Visual Cognition: Expt 1.1
Probing the Role of Feature Dimension Maps in Visual Cognition: Expt 2.1
Probing the Role of Feature Dimension Maps in Visual Cognition: Expt 2.3
Probing the Role of Feature Dimension Maps in Visual Cognition: Expt 3.1 (Pilot)
Probing the Role of Feature Dimension Maps in Visual Cognition: Expt 1.1 (Behavioral)
Probing the Role of Feature Dimension Maps in Visual Cognition: Expt 2.2
Who cites it
55 citing papers in PubMed.
- Realignment of representational drift in mouse visual cortex via flexible electrode arrays.Nature biomedical engineering · 2026Article
- Memory recall errors reflect interacting sensory and mnemonic representations.Psychonomic bulletin & review · 2026Article
- The oblique effect in visual working memory is enhanced by distraction, regardless of tDCS manipulations.Cognitive, affective & behavioral neuroscience · 2026Article
- Visual field map size constrains working memory precision.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Orbitofrontal-sensory cortical interactions in learning and adaptive decision-making.Trends in cognitive sciences · 2026Review
- Retinotopic Spatial Working Memory Representations Are Not Affected by Task-irrelevant Visual Stimuli.Journal of cognitive neuroscience · 2026Article
- Dynamics of working memory drift and information flow across the cortical hierarchy.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2026Article
- Differential role of beta band activity in a dual-task working memory paradigm under internally vs. externally directed cognition.Frontiers in human neuroscience · 2026Article
- Bias in Visual Short-Term Memory for Motion Induced by Perceptually Suppressed Distractors.The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2025Article
- Sensory reformatting for a working visual memory.Trends in cognitive sciences · 2025Review
- Probabilistic working memory representations in human cortex guide behavior.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- Memory recall errors reflect interacting sensory and mnemonic representations.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- Temporal attention modulates distraction resistance of visual working memory representations.Memory & cognition · 2025Article
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- Signal Intrusion Explains Divergent Effects of Visual Distraction on Working Memory.Psychological science · 2025Article
- Neural Dynamics of Reselecting Visual and Motor Contents in Working Memory after External Interference.The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2025Article
- Stimulus representation in human frontal cortex supports flexible control in working memory.eLife · 2025Article
- Perturbing human V1 degrades the fidelity of visual working memory.Nature communications · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Although the contents of working memory can be decoded from visual cortex activity, these representations may play a limited role if they are not robust to distraction. We used model-based fMRI to estimate the impact of distracting visual tasks on working memory representations in several visual field maps in visual and frontoparietal association cortex. Here, we show distraction causes the fidelity of working memory representations to briefly dip when both the memorandum and distractor are jointly encoded by the population activities. Distraction induces small biases in memory errors which can be predicted by biases in neural decoding in early visual cortex, but not other regions. Although distraction briefly disrupts working memory representations, the widespread redundancy with which working memory information is encoded may protect against catastrophic loss. In early visual cortex, the neural representation of information in working memory and behavioral performance are intertwined, solidifying its importance in visual memory.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.