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Humans can retain task-relevant visual information in working memory and use it to compare against visual information selected from the environment. Behaviorally, this speeds target detection (Desimone & Duncan, 1995). In the brain, this manifests as distinct target-related cortical activity patterns in visual cortex in preparation for visual stimulation (Gayet et al., 2017; Harrison & Tong, 2009). In recent years, it has been hotly contested whether, in addition to these “target templates”, the brain also makes use of “templates for rejection” e representations of distracting information to benefit subsequent target detection (Arita, Carlisle, & Woodman, 2012; Beck & Hollingworth, 2015; Beck, Luck, & Hollingworth, 2017; Moher & Egeth, 2012; Reeder, Olivers, & Pollmann, 2017). A difference in how distractor information is retained compared to target information would suggest the use of a different preparatory template. Our questions for the current paper focus on the nature of such preparatory representations of targets and distractors for search. Is a distractor represented distinctly like a target in visual working memory (VWM) with an additional “tag” that this should be rejected once it has been identified during search? Or is there no distinct representation, perhaps even suppression, of the distractor feature in sensory brain areas during the preparatory period? The current study is the first to provide evidence that visual features of anticipated distractors are not represented more distinctly than irrelevant features (that will not appear in the search display) in early visual cortex (EVC), supporting the hypothesis that a template for rejection is functionally different …