Mental imagery typically involves the voluntary retrieval and representation of a sensory memory, but it can also sometimes be involuntary. Despite mental imagery having been a topic of interest for thousands of years, the methodological tools necessary to scientifically probe its underlying mechanisms have only recently been developed. New methods in behavioral psychophysics (the binocular-rivalry technique) and brain imaging (decoding techniques) have been developed and utilized to uncover many new insights into the mechanisms and brain areas involved in mental imagery. These insights are igniting further empirical and theoretical work into imagery itself as well as its role in many high-level cognitive processes and mental disorders.
AlbersA. M.KokP.ToniI.DijkermanH. C.de LangeF. P. (2013). (See References). Demonstrates that visual mental imagery and visual working memory can have overlapping sensory representations in early visual cortex.
2.
KeoghR.PearsonJ. (2011). (See References). Shows that individuals with strong mental imagery will tend to utilize it during visual working memory tasks.
3.
PearsonJ.CliffordC. W. G.TongF. (2008). (See References). The first demonstration that the content of mental imagery can prime subsequent binocular rivalry, in a manner characteristic of early visual cortex.
4.
PearsonJ.RademakerR. L.TongF. (2011). (See References). Work demonstrating that we have good metacognition for visual mental imagery and that imagery strength changes over time within an individual.
5.
AlbersA. M.KokP.ToniI.DijkermanH. C.de LangeF. P. (2013). Shared representations for working memory and mental imagery in early visual cortex. Current Biology, 23, 1427–1431. doi:10.1016/j.cub.2013.05.065
6.
AmitE.GreeneJ. D. (2012). You see, the ends don’t justify the means: Visual imagery and moral judgment. Psychological Science, 23, 861–868. doi:10.1177/0956797611434965
7.
BorstG.GanisG.ThompsonW. L.KosslynS. M. (2011). Representations in mental imagery and working memory: Evidence from different types of visual masks. Memory & Cognition, 40, 204–217. doi:10.3758/s13421-011-0143-7
8.
BorstG.NivenE.LogieR. H. (2011). Visual mental image generation does not overlap with visual short-term memory: A dual-task interference study. Memory & Cognition, 40, 360–372. doi:10.3758/s13421-011-0151-7
9.
BrewinC. R.GregoryJ. D.LiptonM.BurgessN. (2010). Intrusive images in psychological disorders: Characteristics, neural mechanisms, and treatment implications. Psychological Review, 117, 210–232. doi:10.1037/a0018113
FoaE. B.SteketeeG.TurnerR. M.FischerS. C. (1980). Effects of imaginal exposure to feared disasters in obsessive-compulsive checkers. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 18, 449–455.
13.
HolmesE. A.ArntzA.SmuckerM. R. (2007). Imagery rescripting in cognitive behaviour therapy: Images, treatment techniques and outcomes. Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry, 38, 297–305. doi:10.1016/j.jbtep.2007.10.007
14.
HorikawaT.TamakiM.MiyawakiY.KamitaniY. (2013). Neural decoding of visual imagery during sleep. Science, 340, 639–642. doi:10.1126/science.1234330
KosslynS. M.BallT. M.ReiserB. J. (1978). Visual images preserve metric spatial information: Evidence from studies of image scanning. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 4, 47–60.
MelletE.TzourioN.DenisM.MazoyerB. (1995). A positron emission tomography study of visual and mental spatial exploration. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 7, 433–445.
19.
O’CravenK. M.KanwisherN. (2000). Mental imagery of faces and places activates corresponding stimulus-specific brain regions. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 12, 1013–1023.
20.
OwenA. M.ColemanM. R. (2008). Functional neuroimaging of the vegetative state. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 9, 235–243. doi:10.1038/nrn2330
21.
PearsonJ.CliffordC. W. G.TongF. (2008). The functional impact of mental imagery on conscious perception. Current Biology, 18, 982–986. doi:10.1016/j.cub.2008.05.048
22.
PearsonJ.RademakerR. L.TongF. (2011). Evaluating the mind’s eye: The metacognition of visual imagery. Psychological Science, 22, 1535–1542. doi:10.1177/0956797611417134
SchlegelA.KohlerP. J.FogelsonS. V.AlexanderP.KonuthulaD.TseP. U. (2013). Network structure and dynamics of the mental workspace. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA, 110, 16277–16282. doi:10.1073/pnas.1311149110
25.
SerencesJ. T.SaprooS. (2012). Computational advances towards linking BOLD and behavior. Neuropsychologia, 50, 435–446. doi:10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2011.07.013
StokesM.ThompsonR.CusackR.DuncanJ. (2009). Top-down activation of shape-specific population codes in visual cortex during mental imagery. Journal of Neuroscience, 29, 1565–1572. doi:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.4657-08.2009
29.
ThirionB.DuchesnayE.HubbardE.DuboisJ.PolineJ.- B.LebihanD.DehaeneS. (2006). Inverse retinotopy: Inferring the visual content of images from brain activation patterns. NeuroImage, 33, 1104–1116. doi:10.1016/j.neuroimage.2006.06.062
30.
TongF.MengM.BlakeR. (2006). Neural bases of binocular rivalry. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 10, 502–511. doi:10.1016/j.tics.2006.09.003
31.
TongF.PratteM. S. (2012). Decoding patterns of human brain activity. Annual Review of Psychology, 63, 483–509. doi:10.1146/annurev-psych-120710-100412
