Visual imagery and visual representation

doi:10.1016/0166-2236(94)90057-4

Trends in Neurosciences

Volume 17, Issue 7, 1994, Pages 281-287

https://doi.org/10.1016/0166-2236(94)90057-4 Get rights and content

Abstract

Among many controversies in visual neuroscience is whether visual imagery of objects, scenes and living beings is based upon contributions of the early visual areas or depends on hierarchical higher visual areas only, and whether the cortical areas subserving visual imagery are identical to those underlying visual perception. These questions are important for furthering our understanding of vision, since areas active in visual imagery might tell us how the visual cortex represents objects, scenes and living beings. Here, P. E. Roland and B. Gulyás present their hypothesis, based on experimental evidence in man and primates, that the visual areas subserving visual imagery are parieto-occipital and temporo-occipital visual association areas, and that these areas form only a subset of the visual areas engaged in perception. This hypothesis is consistent with the view that objects, scenes and living beings are represented, stored and re-evoked outside the domain of the primary visual cortex and its immediate neighbours.

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Citation Excerpt :
The first of these sub-groups included only those studies in which participants had their eyes closed. Such a comparison addresses the often-contentious issue of whether imagery activates primary visual areas (Kosslyn & Ochsner, 1994; Roland & Gulyás, 1994a) by removing the possibility that this area is stimulated directly by external cues. These calculations, which were based on 322 foci from 19 experiments and 179 participants, showed an overall pattern of activation that was similar to that seen in the whole-group comparison, in terms of localisation and lateralisation, but with smaller clusters of activation.
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The correlation between gaze position and real GPS coordinates of the recalled towns was significant in all hemianopic patients, but in patients with hemineglect this was only the case for towns located on the right half of the map of France. This suggests hemianopic patients can perform spatially consistent mental imagery despite direct or indirect unilateral lesions of the primary visual cortex. In contrast, the left-sided towns recalled by hemineglect patients, revealed that they have some spatial inconsistency or representational difficulty.
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Citation Excerpt :
From a broader perspective, these results indicate that perception and memory-driven imagery can be dissociated at the behavioral level by pharmacological manipulation. Although the neuronal underpinnings of imagery and perception are thought to be similar, including the activation of early visual areas under many experimental conditions (Kosslyn & Thompson, 2003; see also Roland & Gulyás, 1994 and Dulin et al., 2008), Hume’s proposition (1740, 1978) that percepts (impressions) and images (ideas) are substantially similar has not been empirically confirmed (Thomas, 2014). The currently accepted general framework of top-down modulation of sensory cortical areas, i.e., during working memory and imagery, claims that the prefrontal and parietal control regions re-instantiate neural activity in sensory cortex that was originally elicited when the item was processed during stimulus-driven perception (Gazzaley & Nobre, 2012; Kosslyn, Thompson, & Ganis, 2006; Mesulam, 2008; Pasternak & Greenlee, 2005).
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Trends in Neurosciences

DebateVisual imagery and visual representation

Abstract

Brain Res.

Neuropsychologia

Neuropsychologia

Curr. Opin. Neurobiol.

Trends Neurosci.

The Imagery Debate

Image and Mind

J. Neurophysiol.

Sci. Am.

J. Neurosci.

Cerebral Cortex

J. Neurophysiol.

J. Neurosci.

J. Comp. Neurol.

J. Neurosci.

J. Neurophysiol.

J. Neurosci.

Nature

Vision Res.

Debate
Visual imagery and visual representation