Figure 5.

Decoding item-specific information over time during working memory or free recall from long-term memory. (a) Average time course of BOLD activity during a visual working memory task, in which two oriented gratings were briefly shown followed by a postcue indicating which orientation to retain until test. Although the mean BOLD signal steadily declined during the memory retention interval, decoding accuracy for the retained orientation remained elevated throughout the delay period (b). Adapted with permission from Harrison & Tong (2009). (c) Classification of the reinstated context during a participant’s free recall of famous faces, famous places, and common objects. Dots indicate whenever the participant verbally reported an item from a given category. Curves show estimates of match between fMRI activity patterns at each time point during free recall, using classifiers trained on activity patterns from the prior study period with each of the three categories. Reproduced with permission from Polyn et al (2005).