Converging human studies have demonstrated that brain activity patterns observed during task performance reemerge in the following restful awake state. Such “awake reactivation” has been demonstrated across higher-order cortex for complex images or associations. However, it remains unclear what specific training components are reactivated in these studies. Here we sought to provide evidence for the reactivation of a particular visual feature — Gabor orientation. Following extensive training on a visual task, we found robust reactivation in human V1 that lasted at least eight minutes. This effect was not present in higher retinotopic areas such as V2, V3, V3A, or V4v, demonstrating that the effects in V1 are not due to top-down processes such as conscious rehearsal. Furthermore, the amount of awake reactivation predicted the amount of performance improvement on the visual task. These results demonstrate that functionally-relevant awake reactivation of specific visual features occurs in early sensory cortex.

Feature-specific awake reactivation in human V1 after visual training