Contributors

Mira Gruber

Faculty Advisor

Peter Hancock

Keywords

visual imagery, neural associations, networks, scene construction, episodic memory, imagery vividness, visuospatial imagery

Abstract

This literature review compiles research findings related to the brain areas associated with various visual imagery subcategories and explores their contributions to them. Through a search procedure, four research projects were used to identify ten distinct brain areas that demonstrated greater involvement in visual imagery. The visual imagery subcategories discussed in these research projects, and investigated in this review, include scene construction, episodic memory, imagery vividness, and visuospatial imagery. Scene construction was found to utilize the parahippocampal gyrus, hippocampus, retrosplenial cortex, and posterior parietal cortex. Episodic memory involves the same areas as scene construction, but also includes the precuneus and posterior cingulate cortex. Imagery vividness triggers activation in the precuneus, insula, early visual cortex, parahippocampal gyrus, hippocampus, visual association cortex, and posterior cingulate cortex. Visuospatial imagery uses the parahippocampal gyrus, precuneus, and posterior cingulate cortex. Additionally, the insula, Area V1, and Area V2 were found to be negatively associated with imagery vividness, while both Area V1 and Area V2 were found to have negative associations with visuospatial imagery. These results demonstrate that there are both similarities and differences between the networks of the various visual imagery subcategories, and as a result, these nuances are worth exploring further in future research.

Date Added

12-8-2023

Identifiers

N/A

Notes

This paper could not have been completed without the contributions of Mira Gruber, who was a mentor for this paper in everything but name.

College

College of Sciences

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