Representation-specific Recruitment for Visual Working Memory Maintenance

The sensorimotor recruitment model posits that visual working memory (VWM) recruits sensorimotor cortices to support the maintenance of simple visual features (e.g. color, orientation). This dissertation demonstrates that perception and VWM maintenance occur in the same cortical areas, with the region recruited determined by the demands of the task and the specific stimulus involved, regardless of complexity. In Chapter 1, an orthogonal dual-task paradigm was used in which participants maintained information while performing perceptual discriminations. The results revealed a strong bidirectional interference between VWM and perception for two complex stimuli, motion direction and face identity, showing that recruitment during maintenance is not limited to early visual areas. Chapter 2 then delves deeper into how this pattern of interference changes over time. While motion direction showed a pattern of theta oscillation and decay, face identity did not, highlighting important differences in the temporal dynamics of VWM maintenance across different cortical regions. Chapter 3 provides direct causal evidence of the role perceptual cortices play in VWM maintenance for motion direction using transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS). TMS to MT+ cortex during the delay period post-encoding disrupted the memory maintenance and reduced the interference between VWM and ongoing perception. Overall, these findings demonstrate that perceptual recruitment during maintenance is not limited to early sensory areas, but rather any area of the brain may be engaged depending on the specific stimulus and task demands – representation-specific recruitment.

Author

• Paranjape, Sanika

Language

• en

Keyword

• motion perception
• representation-specific recruitment
• visual working memory
• sensory recruitment
• face perception

Date created

• 2026

Type of Work

• Dissertation

License

• All rights reserved

Rights statement

• In Copyright

GW Unit

• Psychology

Degree

• Ph.D.

Advisor

• Kravitz, Dwight J

Committee Member(s)

• Sohn, Myeong-Ho
• Shomstein, Sarah

Persistent URL

•  https://scholarspace.library.gwu.edu/etd/n296x014j