Neural Encoding Geometry of Human Voluntary Visual Selection

Selected targets in humans are represented more strongly than non-selected alternatives after 300–350 ms, with encoding geometry that separates them in neural space.

• Why it matters: Visual selection is tracked precisely, but it was unclear how target and distractor representations become separable in the brain over time.
• What they did: Participants performed voluntary visual selection while neural activity was analyzed for time-evolving spatial selectivity; cross-decoding tested whether targets and alternatives share or add encoding axes.
• The result: Selected and non-selected objects share a sensory axis, but selected targets gain an additional spatially selective axis that enables separation, generalizing across instructed, free-choice, delayed oculomotor, and covert selection.

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