Visual Mental Imagery Induces Retinotopically Organized Activation of Early Visual Areas

Slotnick, Scott D.; Thompson, William L.; Kosslyn, Stephen M.

doi:10.1093/cercor/bhi035

Cited by 353 publications

(231 citation statements)

References 48 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

211

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…Subjects were not allowed to view the stimuli beforehand, discouraging the use of imagery. Moreover, activation of V1 due to imagery or attention typically occurs only in concert with stronger activation of extrastriate cortex (Kastner et al 1998;Kosslyn and Thompson 2003;Slotnick et al 2005;Somers et al 1999), unlike the deactivation observed here. Disinhibitory mechanisms are inconsistent with the inter-areal correlations that we observed.…”

Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 63%

Combined Activation and Deactivation of Visual Cortex During Tactile Sensory Processing

Merabet

Swisher²,

McMains³

et al. 2007

Journal of Neurophysiology

138

119

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The involvement of occipital cortex in sensory processing is not restricted solely to the visual modality. Tactile processing has been shown to modulate higher-order visual and multisensory integration areas in sighted as well as visually deprived subjects; however, the extent of involvement of early visual cortical areas remains unclear. To investigate this issue, we employed functional magnetic resonance imaging in normally sighted, briefly blindfolded subjects with well-defined visuotopic borders as they tactually explored and rated raised-dot patterns. Tactile task performance resulted in significant activation in primary visual cortex (V1) and deactivation of extrastriate cortical regions V2, V3, V3A, and hV4 with greater deactivation in dorsal subregions and higher visual areas. These results suggest that tactile processing affects occipital cortex via two distinct pathways: a suppressive top-down pathway descending through the visual cortical hierarchy and an excitatory pathway arising from outside the visual cortical hierarchy that drives area V1 directly.

show abstract

Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 63%

Combined Activation and Deactivation of Visual Cortex During Tactile Sensory Processing

Merabet

Swisher²,

McMains³

et al. 2007

Journal of Neurophysiology

138

119

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Studies in humans (Krekelberg et al, 2005) and monkeys (Krekelberg et al, 2003) show that the same populations of cells in extrastriate visual areas code for both implied and real motion. Moreover, MT is activated during mental imagery and perception of actual and implied motion (Slotnick et al, 2005). It is possible that mental imagery of forward motion paths (Munger et al, 1999) allows us to fill in the missing visual information and thus to create representational momentum effects.…”

Section: Motor Facilitation and Anticipatory Mental Simulation Of Thementioning

confidence: 99%

Mapping Implied Body Actions in the Human Motor System

et al. 2006

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The human visual system is highly tuned to perceive actual motion as well as to extrapolate dynamic information from static pictures of objects or creatures captured in the middle of motion. Processing of implied motion activates higher-order visual areas that are also involved in processing biological motion. Imagery and observation of actual movements performed by others engenders selective activation of motor and premotor areas that are part of a mirror-neuron system matching action observation and execution. By using single-pulse transcranial magnetic stimulation, we found that the mere observation of static snapshots of hands suggesting a pincer grip action induced an increase in corticospinal excitability as compared with observation of resting, relaxed hands, or hands suggesting a completed action. This facilitatory effect was specific for the muscle that would be activated during actual execution of the observed action. We found no changes in responsiveness of the tested muscles during observation of nonbiological entities with (e.g., waterfalls) or without (e.g., icefalls) implied motion. Thus, extrapolation of motion information concerning human actions induced a selective activation of the motor system. This indicates that overlapping motor regions are engaged in the visual analysis of physical and implied body actions. The absence of motor evoked potential modulation during observation of end posture stimuli may indicate that the observationexecution matching system is preferentially activated by implied, ongoing but not yet completed actions.

show abstract

“…For example, Slotnick, Thompson, & Kosslyn (2005) showed that when participants are asked to visualize a flickering checkerboard wedge rotating, the retinotopic activation maps, as measured by functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), more closely resemble retinotopic perceptual maps (resulting from actual viewing of the stimuli) than when participants are asked to pay attention to the region of space that would be occupied by the checkerboard.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Dissociation between visual attention and visual mental imagery

Thompson

Hsiao

Kosslyn

2011

Journal of Cognitive Psychology

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Visual mental imagery (which involves generating and transforming visual mental representations, i.e., seeing with the mind's eye) and visual attention appear to be distinct processes. However, some researchers have claimed that imagery effects can be explained by appeal to attention (and thus, that imagery is nothing more than a form of attention). In this study, we used a size manipulation to demonstrate that imagery and attention are distinct processes. We reasoned that if participants are asked to perform each function (imagery and attention) using stimuli of two different sizes (large and small), and that stimulus size affects the two functions differently, then we could conclude that imagery and attention are distinct cognitive processes. Our analyses showed that participants performed the imagery task with greater facility at a large size, whereas attention was performed more easily using smaller stimuli. This finding demonstrates that imagery and attention are distinct cognitive processes.

show abstract

Visual Mental Imagery Induces Retinotopically Organized Activation of Early Visual Areas

Cited by 353 publications

References 48 publications

Combined Activation and Deactivation of Visual Cortex During Tactile Sensory Processing

Combined Activation and Deactivation of Visual Cortex During Tactile Sensory Processing

Mapping Implied Body Actions in the Human Motor System

Dissociation between visual attention and visual mental imagery

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About