Human visual cortex represents both memory and sensory information

In everyday life, people often have to keep information in mind over brief periods of time to adequately achieve behavioral goals. When keeping visual information in mind (i.e. a mental image of your keys, or a friend’s face), the outside world doesn’t just stop… The eyes are constantly sensing new images from the surrounding environment. In this study we showed how human visual cortex is able to represent both visual memories as well as ongoing visual inputs concurrently. We hypothesize that visual cortex serves as a comparison circuit, allowing for remembered information to be compared with the outside world.