Transient increases to apparent contrast by exogenous attention persist in visual working memory

The sensory recruitment hypothesis posits that Visual Working Memory (VWM) maintenance uses the same cortical machinery as online perception, implying similarity between the two. Characterizing similarities and differences in these representations is critical for understanding how perceptions are reformatted into durable working memories. It is unknown whether the perceptual appearance effect brought by attention is maintained in VWM. We investigated how VWM depends on attentional state by examining how transient modulations from reflexive (exogenous) attentional orienting affect the appearance of VWM representations; particularly whether VWM takes a "snapshot" at the time of encoding, or transient attentional dynamics continue into VWM. Specifically, we assessed whether the transient modulation to perceived contrast caused by exogenous attention is preserved when attended stimuli are encoded and maintained in VWM. Observers performed a delayed contrast comparison task in which one stimulus had to be held in VWM across a delay and compared to a second stimulus. Exogenous attention was manipulated through transient pre-cues appearing above the location of the first, second, or both stimuli before their onset. Model comparisons revealed that the transient attentional boost to perceived contrast persisted in VWM across the delay. This result indicates that VWM maintains a "snapshot" of the attentional-modulated perceptual representation at the time of encoding and suggests that attentional effects on vision enable us to select and protect in VWM visual information relevant to cognition and action.