Reentry Signals as Excitatory Modulation: Memorizing Subjective Contours Facilitate Detection Without Concurrent Perceptual Competition

Previous studies have established that holding representations with subjective contours in visual working memory (VWM) decreases detection sensitivity, a phenomenon corroborated in our pre-registered protocol (see osf.io/zdb6g). These effects could be explained by the excitatory nature of reentry signals: maintaining subjective contours in VWM provides additional reentry signals that enhance activation of perceptual neurons for the primary perception task (letter search), which in turn suppresses detection sensitivity of task-irrelevant stimuli through competitive interactions. Building on these foundations, the current investigation examines whether reentry signals truly operate through this excitatory mechanism.