Shared Neural Mechanisms of Visual Perception and Imagery

Published on March 13, 2019

For decades, the extent to which visual imagery relies on the same neural mechanisms as visual perception has been a topic of debate. Here, we review recent neuroimaging studies comparing these two forms of visual experience. Their results suggest that there is a large overlap in neural processing during perception and imagery: neural representations of imagined and perceived stimuli are similar in the visual, parietal, and frontal cortex. Furthermore, perception and imagery seem to rely on similar top-down connectivity.

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