One Thing Leads to Another: Anticipating Visual Object Identity Based on Associative-Memory Templates

Probabilistic associations between stimuli afford memory templates that guide perception through proactive anticipatory mechanisms. The current work isolates the behavioral benefits and electrophysiological signatures of memory-guided iden- tity-based anticipation, while equating anticipation of space, time, motor responses, and task relevance. Our results show that anticipation of the specific identity of a forthcoming percept impacts performance and is associated with states of attenuated alpha oscillations and the contingent negative variation, extending previous work implicating these neural substrates in spa- tial and temporal preparatory attention. Together, this work bridges fields of attention, memory, and perception, providing new insights into the neural mechanisms that support complex attentional templates.