Reopening the Mental Imagery Debate: Lessons from Functional Anatomy

In the imagery debate, a key question concerns the inherent spatial nature of mental images. What do we mean by spatial representation? We explore a new idea that suggests that motion is instrumental in the coding of visual space. How is the imagery debate informed by the representation of space being determined by visual motion?

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Reading imaginatively: The imagination in cognitive science and cognitive literary studies

Journal of Literary Semantics ◽

10.1515/jls-2013-0009 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 42 (2) ◽

Cited By ~ 11

Author(s):

Emily T. Troscianko

Keyword(s):

Cognitive Science ◽

Mental Imagery ◽

Literary Texts ◽

Literary Studies ◽

Pictorial Representation ◽

Imagery Debate ◽

Cognitive Literary Studies

AbstractI argue that literary studies can contribute to the “imagery debate” (between pictorialist, propositionalist, and enactivist accounts of mental imagery). While imagery questionnaires are pictorially configured and conflate imagining and seeing with pictorial representation, literary texts can exploit language's capacity for indeterminacy and therefore elicit very different imaginative experiences, thus illuminating the non-pictorial qualities of mental imagery.

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Perspective-Taking: In Search of a Theory

Vision ◽

10.3390/vision4020030 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 4 (2) ◽

pp. 30

Author(s):

Geoff G. Cole ◽

Abbie C. Millett ◽

Steven Samuel ◽

Madeline J. Eacott

Keyword(s):

Present Article ◽

Mental Imagery ◽

Perspective Taking ◽

Developmental Psychology ◽

Social Attention ◽

Formal Description ◽

The Past ◽

Imagery Debate

Perspective-taking has been one of the central concerns of work on social attention and developmental psychology for the past 60 years. Despite its prominence, there is no formal description of what it means to represent another’s viewpoint. The present article argues that such a description is now required in the form of theory—a theory that should address a number of issues that are central to the notion of assuming another’s viewpoint. After suggesting that the mental imagery debate provides a good framework for understanding some of the issues and problems surrounding perspective-taking, we set out nine points that we believe any theory of perspective-taking should consider.

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Functional anatomy of visuo-spatial mental imagery: Correlation maps between baseline NrCBF and psychometric data

NeuroImage ◽

10.1016/s1053-8119(96)80208-4 ◽

1996 ◽

Vol 3 (3) ◽

pp. S206 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

F. Crivello ◽

N. Tzourio ◽

E. Mellet ◽

O. Ghaëm ◽

B.M. Mazoyer

Keyword(s):

Mental Imagery ◽

Functional Anatomy ◽

Psychometric Data

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Unconscious Imagination and the Mental Imagery Debate

Frontiers in Psychology ◽

10.3389/fpsyg.2017.00799 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 8 ◽

Cited By ~ 14

Author(s):

Berit Brogaard ◽

Dimitria Electra Gatzia

Keyword(s):

Mental Imagery ◽

Imagery Debate

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Sign theory at work: The mental imagery debate revisited

Sign Systems Studies ◽

10.12697/sss.2015.43.4.13 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 43 (4) ◽

pp. 584-596 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Jelena Issajeva

Keyword(s):

Mental Imagery ◽

Traditional Approach ◽

Mental Image ◽

Experimental Studies ◽

Sign Theory ◽

Sign System ◽

Different Types ◽

Imagery Debate ◽

The Subject ◽

Different Characteristics

This article attempts to give a plausible explanation to the long-debated question about the nature of mental imagery (MI). The traditional approach to this question is based on the representational paradigm, which, I claim, is misguided. Instead of representational aspects of mental imagery, I emphasize the functions of mental imagery, the variety of properties that images exhibit in experimental studies, and the relations between different characteristics of images, their functions and the subject of imagery. That is, I propose to account for mental imagery as a sign system, consisting of different types of signs. A mental image can contain important properties as parts of the complex sign. This approach to the explanation of the nature of MI is beneficial, since it suggests the phenomenon of mental imagery, which overcomes some long-standing controversies on the issue.

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Functional Anatomy of High-Resolution Visual Mental Imagery

Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience ◽

10.1162/08989290051137620 ◽

2000 ◽

Vol 12 (1) ◽

pp. 98-109 ◽

Cited By ~ 89

Author(s):

E. Mellet ◽

N. Tzourio-Mazoyer ◽

S. Bricogne ◽

B. Mazoyer ◽

S. M. Kosslyn ◽

...

Keyword(s):

High Resolution ◽

Mental Imagery ◽

Visual Processing ◽

Visual Learning ◽

Functional Anatomy ◽

Verbal Description ◽

Visual Mental Imagery ◽

Verbal Descriptions ◽

Comparison Of The Results ◽

No Activation

This study had two purposes. First, in order to address the controversy regarding activation of the primary visual area (PVA) during visual mental imagery, regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) was recorded while subjects performed a task that required high-resolution visual mental imagery. Second, in order to discover whether verbal descriptions can engage visual mechanisms during imagery in the same way as visual stimuli, subjects memorized 3D scenes that were visually presented or were based on a verbal description. Comparison of the results from the imagery conditions to a non-imagery baseline condition revealed no activation in PVA for imagery based on a verbal description and a significant decrease of rCBF in this region for imagery based on visual learning. The pattern of activation in other regions was very similar in the two conditions, including parietal, midbrain, cerebellar, prefrontal, left insular, and right inferior temporal regions. These results provide strong evidence that imagery based on verbal descriptions can recruit regions known to be engaged in high-order visual processing.

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