Fig. 2. Results.

A Coronal, axial, and sagittal slices of the average EPI image of a representative participant, overlaid with cortical depth bins approximating cortical layers (superficial, middle, and deep) from an equi-volume model (see Methods). The cortex is mapped within the region of V1 with voxel eccentricity values 0–3°. B Classifier decisions in V1 over the time interval measured at 8 and 10 seconds after the rotation onset for the presented, mentally rotated and unused gratings in the outer cortical bins (average of the superficial and deep bin) and the middle cortical bin (N = 23 participants; see Supplementary Fig. 3 for detailed analysis within an extended time interval and Supplementary Fig. 4 for analyses across all time points). Perceptual contents were more strongly represented at the middle cortical depth, whereas mentally rotated contents were dominant at the outer cortical bin. C Comparing classifier decisions between all three cortical bins (superficial vs. middle vs. deep) reveals that the difference between perceived and rotated contents is most pronounced between the middle and superficial depths. All error bars denote standard error of mean over subjects. ⁺p < 0.09, *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001.