Sensory Neural Noise as a Limiting Factor in Visual Working Memory Precision in Neurotypicals and Schizophrenia

The neural mechanisms that determine the capacity limits of working memory (WM) are not well understood, with traditional views identifying prefrontal circuitry as the main source of WM limits. Sensory noise, however, remains an underexplored explanation for WM limits despite its unavoidable influence on brain systems that encode and relay sensory information. Here, we show that individual differences in internal sensory noise during visual processing predict visual WM capacity. We further demonstrate that the well-documented WM deficits observed in schizophrenia can be associated with atypically high levels of visual sensory noise, offering a new explanatory framework for these deficits. By experimentally manipulating sensory noise via transcranial direct current stimulation applied to the visual cortex, we also show that changes in sensory noise led to corresponding changes in visual WM precision in individuals with schizophrenia. Finally, a computational model demonstrates that the same sensory noise measured during visual perception can limit WM precision during WM maintenance. These findings show that sensory noise may explain a significant amount of variance in WM function in both neurotypical adults and individuals with schizophrenia.