Research article summary:

When is early visual cortex activated during visual mental imagery?

Abstract Extract:
Although many neuroimaging studies of visual mental imagery have revealed activation in early visual cortex (Areas 17 or 18), many others have not. The authors review this literature and compare how well 3 models explain the disparate results. Each study ... (Full abstract text below)

Published 2003Sep in Journal: Psychol Bull (Language : eng)

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1. Psychol Bull. 2003 Sep;129(5):723-46

When is early visual cortex activated during visual mental imagery?

Kosslyn SM, Thompson WL

Department of Psychology, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, USA. smk@wjh.harvard.edu

Although many neuroimaging studies of visual mental imagery have revealed activation in early visual cortex (Areas 17 or 18), many others have not. The authors review this literature and compare how well 3 models explain the disparate results. Each study was coded 1 or 0, indicating whether activation in early visual cortex was observed, and sets of variables associated with each model were fit to the observed results using logistic regression analysis. Three variables predicted all of the systematic differences in the probability of activation across studies. Two of these variables were identified with a perceptual anticipation theory, and the other was identified with a methodological factors theory. Thus, the variability in the literature is not random.

PMID : 12956541 [PubMed - Indexed for MEDLINE]

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Full Author Information

First Name	LastName	Initials
Stephen M	Kosslyn	SM
William L	Thompson	WL

Affiliation: Department of Psychology, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, USA. smk@wjh.harvard.edu

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Category links from this article:

Humans
Imagination - physiology
Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Psychological Theory
Tomography, Emission-Computed
Tomography, Emission-Computed, Single-Photon
Visual Cortex - anatomy & histology, blood supply, metabolism
Visual Perception - physiology

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