Early Visual Cortex as a Multiscale Cognitive Blackboard

Neurons in early visual cortical areas not only represent incoming visual information but are also engaged by higher level cognitive processes, including attention, working memory, imagery, and decision-making. Are these cognitive effects an epiphenomenon or are they functionally relevant for these mental operations? We review evidence supporting the hypothesis that the modulation of activity in early visual areas has a causal role in cognition. The modulatory influences allow the early visual cortex to act as a multiscale cognitive blackboard for read and write operations by higher visual areas, which can thereby efficiently exchange information. This blackboard architecture explains how the activity of neurons in the early visual cortex contributes to scene segmentation and working memory, and relates to the subject's inferences about the visual world. The architecture also has distinct advantages for the processing of visual routines that rely on a number of sequentially executed processing steps.