Visual working memory performance in aphantasia

Jacobs, Christianne; Schwarzkopf, D. Samuel; Silvanto, Juha

doi:10.1016/j.cortex.2017.10.014

Cited by 102 publications

(116 citation statements)

References 28 publications

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“…This evidence is consistent with classical neuropsychological evidence of severe visual agnosia in the absence of imagery deficit (Behrmann et al, ) as well as of representational neglect in the absence of extrapersonal perceptual neglect (Guariglia, Palermo, Piccardi, Iaria, & Incoccia, ). They also open new fascinating possibilities toward the understanding of new discovered disorders of mental imagery such as congenital aphantasia (Fulford et al, ; Jacobs et al, ; Keogh & Pearson, ; Watkins, ; Zeman et al, , ).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, neuropsychological evidence of severe visual agnosia in absence of imagery deficit (Aglioti, Bricolo, Cantagallo, & Berlucchi, ; Behrmann, Winocur, & Moscovitch, ; Riddoch & Humphreys, ), as well as evidence for a selective acquired (Guariglia, Padovani, Pantano, & Pizzamiglio, ; Trojano & Grossi, ) or congenital deficit in generating mental images (Fulford et al, ; Jacobs, Schwarzkopf, & Silvanto, ; Keogh & Pearson, ; Watkins, ; Zeman, Dewar, & Della Sala, , ), inevitably points toward a dissociation between imagery and perception. Neuroimaging studies show that information about the object category can be decoded based on the activity patterns within the HVC during both imagery and perception, but only during perception based on the activity patterns of the low‐level visual cortex (LVC; i.e., the retinotopic cortex/lower visual areas; Reddy, Tsuchiya, & Serre, ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, neuropsychological evidence of severe visual agnosia in absence of imagery deficit (Aglioti, Bricolo, Cantagallo, & Berlucchi, 1999;Behrmann, Winocur, & Moscovitch, 1992;Riddoch & Humphreys, 1987), as well as evidence for a selective acquired (Guariglia, Padovani, Pantano, & Pizzamiglio, 1993;Trojano & Grossi, 1994) or congenital deficit in generating mental images (Fulford et al, 2017;Jacobs, Schwarzkopf, & Silvanto, 2017;Keogh & Pearson, 2017;Watkins, 2017;Zeman, Dewar, & Della Sala, 2015, inevitably points toward a dissociation between imagery and perception.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The dynamic contribution of the high‐level visual cortex to imagery and perception

Boccia

Sulpizio

Teghil

et al. 2019

Human Brain Mapping

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Mental imagery and visual perception rely on the same content‐dependent brain areas in the high‐level visual cortex (HVC). However, little is known about dynamic mechanisms in these areas during imagery and perception. Here we disentangled local and inter‐regional dynamic mechanisms underlying imagery and perception in the HVC and the hippocampus (HC), a key region for memory retrieval during imagery. Nineteen healthy participants watched or imagined a familiar scene or face during fMRI acquisition. The neural code for familiar landmarks and faces was distributed across the HVC and the HC, although with a different representational structure, and generalized across imagery and perception. However, different regional adaptation effects and inter‐regional functional couplings were detected for faces and landmarks during imagery and perception. The left PPA showed opposite adaptation effects, with activity suppression following repeated observation of landmarks, but enhancement following repeated imagery of landmarks. Also, functional coupling between content‐dependent brain areas of the HVC and HC changed as a function of task and content. These findings provide important information about the dynamic networks underlying imagery and perception in the HVC and shed some light upon the thin line between imagery and perception which has characterized the neuropsychological debates on mental imagery.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The dynamic contribution of the high‐level visual cortex to imagery and perception

Boccia

Sulpizio

Teghil

et al. 2019

Human Brain Mapping

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show abstract

“…However, beyond this, little research has examined the nature of aphantasia and the impact on imagery function and cognition more broadly. A single-participant aphantasia case study found no significant difference from controls in a visual imagery task (judging the location of a target in relation to an imagined shape) nor its matched version of a working memory task, except at the hardest level of difficulty [5]. However, aphantasics show significantly less imagery-based priming in a binocular rivalry task [2, 15], and show diminished physiological responses to fearful text as compared with controls [7].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Quantifying Aphantasia through drawing: Those without visual imagery show deficits in object but not spatial memory

Bainbridge¹,

Pounder

Eardley

et al. 2019

Preprint

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Congenital aphantasia is a recently characterized experience defined by the inability to form voluntary visual imagery, in spite of intact semantic memory, recognition memory, and visual perception. Because of this specific deficit to visual imagery, aphantasia serves as an ideal population for probing the nature of representations in visual memory, particularly the interplay of object, spatial, and symbolic information. Here, we conducted a large-scale online study of aphantasics and revealed a dissociation in object and spatial content in their memory representations. Sixty-one aphantasics and matched controls with typical imagery studied real-world scene images, and were asked to draw them from memory, and then later copy them during a matched perceptual condition. Drawings were objectively quantified by 2,795 online scorers for object and spatial details. Aphantasics recalled significantly fewer objects than controls, with less color in their drawings, and an increased reliance on verbal scaffolding. However, aphantasics showed incredibly high spatial accuracy, equivalent to controls, and made significantly fewer memory errors. These differences between groups only manifested during recall, with no differences between groups during the matched perceptual condition. This object-specific memory impairment in aphantasics provides evidence for separate systems in memory that support object versus spatial information.

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“…The subjective vividness of visual mental images varies substantially across individuals [2][3][4][5] . Some individuals experience mental images as "quasivisual" in nature, while others have less vivid images, down to the total absence of VMI experience in otherwise normal individuals, a condition dubbed as "aphantasia" [6][7][8][9] . The neural bases of this remarkable set of cognitive functions are the object of intense research efforts 3,10-15 .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Visual mental imagery engages the left fusiform gyrus, but not the early visual cortex: a meta-analysis of neuroimaging evidence

Spagna

Hajhajate

Liu

2020

Preprint

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The neural bases of visual mental imagery (VMI) are the object of intense debate. Their identification is central to define the brain substrates our conscious experience and can be clinically important to reveal consciousness in non-communicating patients or to alleviate posttraumatic stress disorder. The dominant model of VMI stipulates a functional and anatomical equivalence between visual mental imagery and visual perception. In patients with acquired brain damage, the model predicts a systematic co-occurrence of perceptual and imaginal deficits.However, patients with lesions restricted to the occipital cortex often experience vivid mental images, even in case of cortical blindness resulting from bilateral V1 damage. Instead, patients with extensive left temporal damage are more likely to have impaired VMI. On the other hand, some neuroimaging and neuromodulatory evidence does suggest an implication of striate cortex in VMI. To address this discrepancy, we conducted an activation-likelihood-estimation-based large-scale meta-analysis of 46 functional magnetic resonance imaging experiments to map the extent of cortical activation associated with three contrasts: (1) all studies combined; (2) VMI versus Control, (3) VMI versus Perception, and (4) Motor Mental Imagery versus Control.Results from the VMI versus Control contrast demonstrated an association between VMI and activation increase in the frontoparietal and cingulo-opercular networks, as well as in the left fusiform gyrus. Results from the VMI versus Perception contrast showed the association between VMI and activation increase of the anterior insular and supplementary motor area / anterior cingulate cortices, bilaterally. Conjunction analyses between the VMI versus Control and the VMI Mental Imagery versus Perception contrasts showed the activation of the left anterior insular cortex and in the bilateral supplementary motor area / anterior cingulate cortex.Results from the Motor Mental Imagery versus Control contrast showed that mental motor imagery increases the activation of the cerebellum and of the superior frontal gyri bilaterally, of the left supplementary motor area, of the anterior portion of the left calcarine sulcus, and of the left fusiform / parahippocampal gyri. Conjunction analyses between the VMI versus Control and the Motor Mental Imagery versus Control contrasts showed the activation of the bilateral superior frontal gyrus as well as of the left supplementary motor area / anterior cingulate cortex.Thus, the results stress the importance for VMI of brain networks associated with attentional control and working memory functions, together with rostral portions of the cortical ventral visual stream. Bayesian analysis confirmed the lack of evidence for an activation of the early visual areas in VMI, consistent with the results from brain-damaged patients. Our evidence suggests a revision of the VMI model. A Fusiform Imagery Node (FIN) in the area FG3 of the left fusiform gyrus might act as a hub retrieving visual information from long-term sem...

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Visual working memory performance in aphantasia

Cited by 102 publications

References 28 publications

The dynamic contribution of the high‐level visual cortex to imagery and perception

The dynamic contribution of the high‐level visual cortex to imagery and perception

Quantifying Aphantasia through drawing: Those without visual imagery show deficits in object but not spatial memory

Visual mental imagery engages the left fusiform gyrus, but not the early visual cortex: a meta-analysis of neuroimaging evidence

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