The neural correlates of visual mental imagery: An ongoing debate
Open accessAbstract
The functional mechanisms and the neural correlates of visual mental imagery (the faculty whereby we can use our "mind's eye" to visualize objects in their absence) are at the centre of a lively debate in cognitive neuroscience. Neurocognitive models have proposed a functional equivalence between visual perception and visual mental imagery, which would be subserved by common neural substrates, such as the retinotopic areas in the occipital lobe. However, brain-damaged patients may demonstrate either impaired imagery and preserved perception, such as the classical Charcot and Bernard case and the patients described by Moro et al. (2008, this issue), or the opposite pattern of performance, consisting of preserved imagery and impaired perception. This double dissociation provides a strong challenge to models postulating a functional and anatomical equivalence of perception and imagery, and suggests that these functions have partly distinct neural correlates.
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Loss of imagery due to neurological and psychiatric disorder was described in a series of case reports from the 1880s onwards.
“Although loss of imagery due to neurological and psychiatric disorder was described in a series of case reports from the 1880s onwards”
From Aphantasia and hyperphantasia: exploring imagery vividness extremes (2024) · cites this paper as [14]
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- Authors
- Bartolomeo, P.
- Affiliations
- Inserm (FR)
- Corresponding author
- Bartolomeo, Paolo
- ORCID
- Bartolomeo, Paolo
- Venue
- Cortex
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2008-02
- Volume
- 44
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 107-108
- ISSN
- 0010-9452 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2061815080
- Cited by
- 123
- References
- 9
- Citations by year
- 2026: 9 · 2025: 8 · 2024: 14 · 2023: 8 · 2022: 5 · 2021: 8 · 2020: 9 · 2019: 5 · 2018: 8 · 2017: 8 · 2016: 4 · 2015: 6 · 2014: 4 · 2013: 6 · 2012: 6
- FWCI
- 1.33
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- inserm.hal.science
- Licence
- Locations
- Cortex (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- HAL (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Visual perception and processing mechanisms
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Memory Processes and Influences
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Philosophy and Theoretical Science
- Keywords
- visual imagery, visual perception, neural correlates, double dissociation, brain damage, retinotopic areas, occipital lobe, functional equivalence, neurocognitive model
- MeSH terms
- Brain, Brain Injuries, Humans, Imagination, Memory, Memory Disorders, Temporal Lobe, Visual Perception
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