Dissociating external and internal attentional selection

Just as attention can shift externally toward relevant objects in the visual environment, it can shift internally toward relevant items within Visual Working Memory (VWM). Recent work has shown that spatial attention is automatically directed toward the previous location of an attended memory item, as it is to locations of perceived stimuli. When attending memory items, however, there is no sensory information to be processed at the previous location. Thus, we asked whether internal attention—akin to external attention—modulates sensory processing. In two EEG experiments, we compared location-specific sensory enhancements during attentional selection of external (perceived) versus internal (memorized) stimuli. Alpha-power and gaze-position biases confirmed an inherent spatial organization within VWM. However, Rapid Invisible Frequency Tagging (RIFT) revealed sensory modulation only during external attentional selection. Thus, VWM is not blindly recruiting existing mechanisms of external attention, but instead uses space as an organizational principle to store and select memories.