Editing Iconic memory (section)

===Informational persistence===
Information persistence represents the ''information'' about a stimulus that persists after its physical offset. It is ''[[wiktionary:visual|visual]]'' in nature, but not ''[[wiktionary:visible|visible]].''<ref name="Irwin">{{cite journal|last=Irwin|first=David|author2=James Yeomans|year=1986|title=Sensory Registration and Informational Persistence|journal=Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance|volume=12|issue=3|pages=343–360|citeseerx=10.1.1.278.6648|doi=10.1037/0096-1523.12.3.343|pmid=2943863 }}<!--| access-date = 2011-03-08 --></ref> Sperling's experiments were a test of informational persistence.<ref name="Coltheart"/> Stimulus duration is the key contributing factor to the duration of informational persistence.  As stimulus duration increases, so does the duration of the visual code.<ref name="Greene">{{cite journal|last=Greene|first=Ernest|year=2007|title=Information persistence in the integration of partial cues for object recognition|journal=Perception & Psychophysics|volume=69|issue=5|pages=772–784|doi=10.3758/BF03193778|pmid=17929699 |doi-access=free}}<!--| access-date = 2011-03-11 --></ref> The non-visual components represented by informational persistence include the abstract characteristics of the image, as well as its spatial location. Due to the nature of informational persistence, unlike visible persistence, it is immune to masking effects.<ref name = "Long"/>  The characteristics of this component of iconic memory suggest that it plays the key role in representing a post-categorical memory store for which VSTM can access information for consolidation.<ref name = "Irwin"/> [[Image:Ventral-dorsal streams.svg|thumb|right|200px|The dorsal stream (green) and ventral stream (purple) are shown. They originate from a common source in visual cortex]]

====Neural basis====
Although less research exists regarding the neural representation of informational persistence compared to visible persistence, new electrophysiological techniques have begun to reveal cortical areas involved. Unlike visible persistence, informational persistence is thought to rely on higher-level visual areas beyond the visual cortex.  The anterior [[superior temporal sulcus]] (STS), a part of the [[ventral stream]], was found to be active in macaques during iconic memory tasks.{{Citation needed|date=November 2016}} This brain region is associated with [[object recognition]] and object identity. Iconic memory's role in change detection has been related to activation in the middle occipital gyrus (MOG).  MOG activation was found to persist for approximately 2000ms suggesting a possibility that iconic memory has a longer duration than what was currently thought. Iconic memory is also influenced by genetics and proteins produced in the brain. [[Brain-derived neurotrophic factor]] (BDNF) is a part of the [[neurotrophin]] family of nerve growth factors.  Individuals with mutations to the BDNF gene which codes for BDNF have been shown to have shortened, less stable informational persistence.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Beste|first=Christian|author2=Daniel Schneider|author3=Jörg Epplen|author4=Larissa Arning|date=Feb 2011|title=The functional BDNF Val66Met polymorphism affects functions of pre-attentive visual sensory memory processes|journal=Neuropharmacology|volume=60|issue=2–3|pages=467–471|doi=10.1016/j.neuropharm.2010.10.028|pmid=21056046|s2cid=14522722 }}<!--| access-date = 2011-03-19 --></ref>