# Adaptive visual representation in human posterior parietal cortex

> **NIH NIH R01** · YALE UNIVERSITY · 2024 · $484,541

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY
A key component of human cognition is goal-directed visual information processing. We have shown
extensively in prior research that not only do visual representations exist in posterior parietal cortex (PPC), but
also these representations exhibit greater attention and task effects and greater distractor resistance in visual
working memory (VWM) than those in occipitotemporal cortex (OTC). Incorporating PPC’s other well-known
role in space, attention and action-related processing, we argue that PPC is an adaptive visual processing
center, such that the interactions among the different PPC functions allow incoming visual information to be
selected, represented and sustained to guide thoughts, solve problems, and, if needed, support the execution
of timely and appropriate actions. Despite these advances, presently, there is a lack of a detailed mechanistic
understanding of how goal-directed visual information is represented in PPC to support its function, especially
in the face of distraction. In the current funding period, we have made a number of significant discoveries
regarding the adaptive nature of PPC visual representation. In particular, we found that, rather than blocking
distractor representation in VWM, PPC forms independent target and distractor representations, effectively
combating distraction and reducing interference. Just like ventral regions’ ability to form visual object identity
representation tolerant to changes across viewing conditions, dorsal regions thus appear to achieve a different
kind of representational tolerance: the ability to maintain stable object representations in VWM in the face of
ever-changing visual input. In the current funding period, we also made the important discovery that feedback
from PPC can actively shape the VWM content of OTC. In this renewal proposal, we seek continuous funding
to significantly expand the important discoveries made in the current funding period and, through a number of
critical experimental manipulations, further test the utility and significance of distractor-tolerant object
representations in VWM. We will additionally examine how feedback and distraction may interact to jointly
determine the content of VWM. Together, results of this proposal shall provide an in-depth and mechanistic
understanding of the adaptive nature of VWM representation in the human brain.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10978260
- **Project number:** 2R01EY030854-05
- **Recipient organization:** YALE UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** YAODA XU
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $484,541
- **Award type:** 2
- **Project period:** 2020-05-01 → 2028-08-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10978260

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10978260, Adaptive visual representation in human posterior parietal cortex (2R01EY030854-05). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-06-11 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10978260. Licensed CC0.

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