Extended Data Fig. 4: Maintenance of conscious content over time for stimulus categories, identity and orientation.

a, Cross-temporal representational similarity matrices in Posterior ROI (N_patients=28, N_electrodes = 583). The leftmost column shows similarity for letters vs. false fonts, separately for task-relevant (left) and task-irrelevant (right) trials. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) plots at 0.3 s illustrate the separability between letters and false fonts. The top rightward column display similarity for identity, while bottom rows show similarity for orientation. Contours indicate statistical significance based on cluster-based permutation tests (upper tail test, α = 0.05). PCA illustrates clear separability between letters and false fonts in the posterior cortex at 0.3 s, regardless of task relevance (top – task-relevant, bottom - task-irrelevant). This separability was largely sustained in the task-relevant condition but diminished between ~0.95 and 1.4 s. In the task-irrelevant condition, separability was significant only for a brief period at the beginning. Identity information was significant for letters and false-fonts but not for faces. While identity information was not sustained throughout the entire stimulus duration, elevated z-scores up to 1 s suggest a potential limitation in statistical power. No statistically significant orientation information was observed for any category. Conventions as in Fig. 3. b, Cross-temporal representational similarity matrices in Prefrontal ROI (N_patients=28, N_electrodes = 576) for the same contrasts as and following the same conventions as in a. No contrast yielded statistically significant results in the PFC ROI.