Working Memory for Low-Level Visual Features: Sensory Mechanisms for Detecting the Mismatch between the Current Orientations and Those Stored in Memory

Abstract

The amplitudes of the P100 and N150 early components of evoked potentials in the visual cortex have been analyzed on 33 volunteers with normal vision during matching between the current orientation and that stored in memory. An increase in the P100 response in the occipital and parietal cortical areas was identified as an informative indicator of mismatch between the current and stored-in-memory orientations. This effect was not found for more complex stimuli, namely, spatial patterns. The N150 component demonstrated a similar effect, but in contrast to P100 it was not stimulus specific. Thus, in the first 100 ms, a signal of mismatch between the current and stored-in-memory orientations arises in the early visual areas that represents a mechanism for early implicit response to changes in the basic characteristics of the visual space.