Single-neuron encoding of rapidly learned visual information reshapes human perception.

Single-neuron recordings in human occipital cortex and medial temporal lobe show that rapidly learned visual identities are encoded by modulated activity, with OC needing extra processing time.

• Why it matters: The neural mechanism for how minimal exposure produces durable perceptual change is unclear, limiting biologically plausible models of few-shot visual learning.
• What they did: Participants rapidly learned to recognize degraded images while single-neuron activity was recorded in OC and MTL; population decoding tracked when learned identity information emerged.
• The result: OC identity decoding required additional processing time, while MTL showed delayed neuronal responses, implying OC supports rapid recognition via recurrent processing without relying on MTL feedback.

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