Abstract
A key prediction of sensorimotor recruitment models of visual working memory (VWM) is that information is maintained in corresponding perceptual areas of input, thus capable of both influencing and being influenced by incoming sensory information of the same feature group. Prior studies (e.g. Teng & Kravitz, 2019) provide evidence for this bidirectional relationship for orientation and color, demonstrating an interaction between ongoing perception and maintained VWM content consistent with the known tuning curve properties, likely a result of their shared recruitment of perceptual areas. However, causal evidence for the involvement of these regions is lacking or inconsistent. Here, we report the results of a study that generalizes these effects to random dot kinematograms (RDK), critical due to the accessibility of Area MT+ to stimulation. Participants were asked to maintain either the direction or color of a RDK while performing a same/different discrimination task on two additional RDK’s in terms of either color or direction. Critically, the maintained direction of motion fell either between (middle) or outside (side) of the two discrimination stimuli. We expected, and observed that discrimination thresholds were significantly greater for the middle than side conditions (p < .001, Cohens d = .637), but only when the direction of motion was the maintained feature. We then parameterized the ISI between the encoding of the VWM stimulus and the discrimination, observing significant variability which will help target dual-pulse TMS in time. We expect that TMS to Area MT+ during the ISI will destabilize the VWM representation, causing its impact on the discrimination thresholds to diminish and the precision and accuracy of report to drop, providing casual evidence of the involvement of perceptual areas in VWM.