Functional Anatomy of High-Resolution Visual Mental Imagery

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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Verbally Induced Olfactory Illusions Are Not Caused by Visual Processing: Evidence From Early and Late Blindness

i-Perception ◽

10.1177/20416695211016483 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 12 (3) ◽

pp. 204166952110164

Author(s):

Stina Cornell Kärnekull* ◽

Billy Gerdfeldter ◽

Maria Larsson ◽

Artin Arshamian

Keyword(s):

Mental Imagery ◽

Visual Processing ◽

Visual Information ◽

Verbal Label ◽

General Mechanism ◽

Verbal Information ◽

Language Functions ◽

Visual Mental Imagery ◽

Per Se ◽

Blind Individuals

Olfactory perception is malleable and easily modulated by top-down processes such as those induced by visual and verbal information. A classic example of this is olfactory illusions where the perceived pleasantness of an odor is manipulated by the valence of a verbal label that is either visually or auditorily presented together with the odor. The mechanism behind this illusion is still unknown, and it is not clear if it is driven only by verbal information or if there is an interaction between language functions and visual mental imagery processes. One way to test this directly is to study early blind individuals who have little or no experience of visual information or visual mental imagery. Here, we did this by testing early blind, late blind, and sighted individuals in a classical paradigm where odors were presented with negative, neutral, and positive labels via speech. In contrast to our hypothesis—that the lack of visual imagery would render early blind individuals less susceptible to the olfactory illusion—early and late blind participants showed more amplified illusions than sighted. These findings demonstrate that the general mechanism underlying verbally induced olfactory illusions is not caused by visual processing and visual mental imagery per se.

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Mental Rotation Meets the Motion Aftereffect: The Role of hV5/MT+ in Visual Mental Imagery

Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience ◽

10.1162/jocn.2010.21525 ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 23 (6) ◽

pp. 1395-1404 ◽

Cited By ~ 19

Author(s):

Ruth Seurinck ◽

Floris P. de Lange ◽

Erik Achten ◽

Guy Vingerhoets

Keyword(s):

Mental Rotation ◽

Mental Imagery ◽

Parietal Cortex ◽

Neural Activity ◽

Posterior Parietal Cortex ◽

Visual Motion ◽

Motion Aftereffect ◽

Mental Rotation Task ◽

Behavioral Performance ◽

Visual Mental Imagery

A growing number of studies show that visual mental imagery recruits the same brain areas as visual perception. Although the necessity of hV5/MT+ for motion perception has been revealed by means of TMS, its relevance for motion imagery remains unclear. We induced a direction-selective adaptation in hV5/MT+ by means of an MAE while subjects performed a mental rotation task that elicits imagined motion. We concurrently measured behavioral performance and neural activity with fMRI, enabling us to directly assess the effect of a perturbation of hV5/MT+ on other cortical areas involved in the mental rotation task. The activity in hV5/MT+ increased as more mental rotation was required, and the perturbation of hV5/MT+ affected behavioral performance as well as the neural activity in this area. Moreover, several regions in the posterior parietal cortex were also affected by this perturbation. Our results show that hV5/MT+ is required for imagined visual motion and engages in an interaction with parietal cortex during this cognitive process.

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Multiple overlapping dynamic patterns of the visual sensory network in schizophrenia

10.1101/2020.12.21.423535 ◽

2020 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Mohammad S.E Sendi ◽

Godfrey D Pearlson ◽

Daniel H Mathalon ◽

Judith M Ford ◽

Adrian Preda ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Functional Connectivity ◽

Visual Processing ◽

Information Transfer ◽

Pearson Correlation ◽

Visual Learning ◽

Network Connectivity ◽

Resting State Fmri ◽

Connectivity Pattern ◽

Middle Temporal Gyrus ◽

Middle Temporal

Although visual processing impairments have been explored in schizophrenia (SZ), their underlying neurobiology of the visual processing impairments has not been widely studied. Also, while some research has hinted at differences in information transfer and flow in SZ, there are few investigations of the dynamics of functional connectivity within visual networks. In this study, we analyzed resting-state fMRI data of the visual sensory network (VSN) in 160 healthy control (HC) subjects and 151 SZ subjects. We estimated 9 independent components within the VSN. Then, we calculated the dynamic functional network connectivity (dFNC) using the Pearson correlation. Next, using k-means clustering, we partitioned the dFNCs into five distinct states, and then we calculated the portion of time each subject spent in each state, that we termed the occupancy rate (OCR). Using OCR, we compared HC with SZ subjects and investigated the link between OCR and visual learning in SZ subjects. Besides, we compared the VSN functional connectivity of SZ and HC subjects in each state. We found that this network is indeed highly dynamic. Each state represents a unique connectivity pattern of fluctuations in VSN FNC, and all states showed significant disruption in SZ. Overall, HC showed stronger connectivity within the VSN in states. SZ subjects spent more time in a state in which the connectivity between the middle temporal gyrus and other regions of VNS is highly negative. Besides, OCR in a state with strong positive connectivity between middle temporal gyrus and other regions correlated significantly with visual learning scores in SZ.

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First Year Student Perception and Experience of Online Topographical Anatomy Laboratory Classes using Zoom Technology during the COVID-19 Pandemic

International Journal of Innovation in Science and Mathematics Education ◽

10.30722/ijisme.29.03.002 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 29 (3) ◽

Author(s):

Rudi Klein ◽

Chiara Tomassoni ◽

Gayathri Rajaaman ◽

Maxwell Winchester ◽

Norman Eizenberg ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Student Performance ◽

Learning Experience ◽

Student Perception ◽

Visual Learning ◽

Functional Anatomy ◽

Gross Anatomy ◽

First Year ◽

Topographical Anatomy ◽

Anatomy Laboratory ◽

Student Grades

During semester one of 2020, the units ‘Functional Anatomy of the Trunk’ and ‘Functional Anatomy of the Limbs’ which focus on human topographical anatomy were re-designed into an online delivery format and taught remotely in response to the COVID-19 lockdown. It was expected that the move to remote teaching would negatively impact student perception and learning experience, in particular that of the cadaver-based laboratory work. The aim of this study was to investigate whether the replacement of traditional face-to-face cadaver-based anatomy laboratories with an online version using digital anatomy resources and Zoom technology as the communication platform would achieve comparable student learning experience and outcomes. First Year Students (n=69) enrolled in these units were invited to participate in this study and were asked at the conclusion of each unit to complete an anonymous opinion-based survey via Qualtrics. The Qualtrics data, student grades and Learning Management System (LMS) statistics were analysed. Results indicate that student perception of the online gross anatomy laboratory learning was positive and that it had complemented their learning. Most students agreed that as a visual learning resource, it provided an improved understanding of anatomy and helped with the application of anatomical knowledge. Interestingly, student performance showed a similar range of marks compared with previous years. However, students strongly agreed that the online 2D learning experience had significant limitations when compared to live use of cadavers in laboratories.

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Failures to Imagine

Imagination Cognition and Personality ◽

10.1177/0276236616679963 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 36 (3) ◽

pp. 270-300 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Reed Maxwell ◽

Steven Jay Lynn ◽

Scott Lilienfeld

Keyword(s):

Borderline Personality Disorder ◽

Personality Disorder ◽

Mental Imagery ◽

Emotional Regulation ◽

Preliminary Evidence ◽

Borderline Personality ◽

Self Report ◽

Future Research ◽

Cross Sectional ◽

Visual Mental Imagery

Although interest in the relationship between mental imagery and psychopathology has increased greatly over the last decade, few publications to date have examined relationships between personality-related psychopathology and mental imagery use, abilities, or both. However, we have reason to expect that substantive relationships may exist. For example, studies have consistently linked psychopathy and borderline personality disorder to problems in emotion experience and emotion regulation, and a growing number of studies indicate that deficits in visual mental imagery use and ability in particular may contribute to such problems. Using correlational data from multiple self-report measures of normal and pathological personality functioning and visual mental imagery, our study presents preliminary evidence for lower levels of self-reported visual mental imagery use, abilities, or both among noncriminal individuals with higher levels of self-reported psychopathy and individuals with greater emotional regulation difficulties, a core feature of borderline personality disorder. We also found significant relationships among self-reported visual mental imagery use, ability, or both, and personality variables shown to strongly predict psychopathy and emotional regulation difficulties. Limitations of the study, especially its reliance on a correlational, cross-sectional design, are discussed, and implications for future research are explored.

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Visual mental imagery: A view from artificial intelligence

Cortex ◽

10.1016/j.cortex.2018.01.022 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 105 ◽

pp. 155-172 ◽

Cited By ~ 6

Author(s):

Maithilee Kunda

Keyword(s):

Artificial Intelligence ◽

Mental Imagery ◽

Visual Mental Imagery

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Visual mental imagery: More than “seeing with the mind’s eye”

The Visual World in Memory ◽

10.4324/9780203889770-13 ◽

2008 ◽

pp. 231-266

Keyword(s):

Mental Imagery ◽

Visual Mental Imagery ◽

Mind's Eye

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Neural Responses to Infant Emotions and Emotional Self-Awareness in Mothers and Fathers during Pregnancy

International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health ◽

10.3390/ijerph17093314 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 17 (9) ◽

pp. 3314 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Cristina Trentini ◽

Marco Pagani ◽

Marco Lauriola ◽

Renata Tambelli

Keyword(s):

Mental Imagery ◽

Spatial Information ◽

Brain Activity ◽

Post Partum ◽

High Order ◽

Self Awareness ◽

Neural Responses ◽

Mothers And Fathers ◽

Visual Mental Imagery ◽

Affective Processes

Neuroscientific research has largely investigated the neurobiological correlates of maternal and (to a much lesser extent) paternal responsiveness in the post-partum period. In contrast, much less is known about the neural processing of infant emotions during pregnancy. Twenty mothers and 19 fathers were recruited independently during the third trimester of pregnancy. High-density electroencephalography (hdEEG) was recorded while expectant parents passively viewed images representing distressed, ambiguous, happy, and neutral faces of unknown infants. Correlational analyses were performed to detect a link between neural responses to infant facial expressions and emotional self-awareness. In response to infant emotions, mothers and fathers showed similar cerebral activity in regions involved in high-order socio-affective processes. Mothers and fathers also showed different brain activity in premotor regions implicated in high-order motor control, in occipital regions involved in visuo-spatial information processing and visual mental imagery, as well as in inferior parietal regions involved in attention allocation. Low emotional self-awareness negatively correlated with activity in parietal regions subserving empathy in mothers, while it positively correlated with activity in temporal and occipital areas implicated in mentalizing and visual mental imagery in fathers. This study may enlarge knowledge on the neural response to infant emotions during pregnancy.

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