Object Imagery Research Articles

Neural representations underlying mental imagery as unveiled by representation similarity analysis

It is commonly acknowledged that visual imagery and perception rely on the same content-dependent brain areas in the high-level visual cortex (HVC). However, the way in which our brain processes and organizes previous acquired knowledge to allow the generation of mental images is still a matter of debate. Here, we performed a representation similarity analysis of three previous fMRI experiments conducted in our laboratory to characterize the neural representation underlying imagery and perception of objects, buildings and faces and to disclose possible dissimilarities in the neural structure of such representations. To this aim, we built representational dissimilarity matrices (RDMs) by computing multivariate distances between the activity patterns associated with each pair of stimuli in the content-dependent areas of the HVC and HC. We found that spatial information is widely coded in the HVC during perception (i.e. RSC, PPA and OPA) and imagery (OPA and PPA). Also, visual information seems to be coded in both preferred and non-preferred regions of the HVC, supporting a distributed view of encoding. Overall, the present results shed light upon the spatial coding of imagined and perceived exemplars in the HVC.

Neurophysiological evidence of motor imagery training in Parkinson’s disease: a case series study

AbstractBackground:Motor imagery (MI) has become an increasingly popular rehabilitation tool for individuals with motor impairments. However, it has been proposed that individuals with Parkinson’s Disease (PKD) may not benefit from MI due to impairments in motor learning.Objective:This case series study investigated the effects of a 4-week MI training protocol on MI ability in three male individuals with PKD, with an emphasis on examining changes in brain responses.Methods:Training was completed primarily at home, via audio recordings, and emphasized the imagination of functional tasks. MI ability was assessed pre and post-training using subjective and objective imagery questionnaires, alongside an electroencephalographic (EEG) recording of a functional MI task. EEG analysis focused on the mu rhythm, as it has been proposed that suppression in the mu rhythm may reflect MI success and motor learning. Previous research has indicated that mu suppression is impaired in individuals with PKD, and may contribute to the disease’s associated deficits in motor learning.Results:Following training, all three participants improved in MI accuracy, but reported no notable improvements in MI vividness. Greater suppression in the mu rhythm was also exhibited by all three participants post-training.Conclusion:These results suggest the participants learned from the training protocol and that individuals with PKD are responsive to MI training. Further research on a larger scale is needed to verify the findings and determine if this learning translates to improvements in motor function.

Pictorial low-level features in mental images: evidence from eye fixations.

It is known that eye movements during object imagery reflect areas visited during encoding. But will eye movements also reflect pictorial low-level features of imagined stimuli? In this paper, three experiments are reported in which we investigate whether low-level properties of mental images elicit specific eye movements. Based on the conceptualization of mental images as depictive representations, we expected low-level visual features to influence eye fixations during mental imagery, in the absence of a visual input. In a first experiment, twenty-five participants performed a visual imagery task with high vs. low spatial frequency and high vs. low contrast gratings. We found that both during visual perception and during mental imagery, first fixations were more often allocated to the low spatial frequency-high contrast grating, thus showing that eye fixations were influenced not only by physical properties of visual stimuli but also by its imagined counterpart. In a second experiment, twenty-two participants imagined high contrast and low contrast stimuli that they had not encoded before. Again, participants allocated more fixations to the high contrast mental images than to the low contrast mental images. In a third experiment, we ruled out task difficulty as confounding variable. Our results reveal that low-level visual features are represented in the mind's eye and thus, they contribute to the characterization of mental images in terms of how much perceptual information is re-instantiated during mental imagery.

On the relationship between trait autobiographical episodic memory and spatial navigation.

Influential research has focused on identifying the common neural and behavioural substrates underlying episodic memory (the re-experiencing of specific details from past experiences) and spatial cognition, with some theories proposing that these are supported by the same mechanisms. However, the similarities and differences between these two forms of memory in humans require further specification. We used an individual-differences approach based on self-reported survey data collected in a large online study (n = 7,487), focusing on autobiographical episodic memory and spatial navigation and their relationship to object and spatial imagery abilities. Multivariate analyses replicated prior findings that autobiographical episodic memory abilities dissociated from spatial navigational abilities. Considering imagery, episodic autobiographical memory overlapped with imagery of objects, whereas spatial navigation overlapped with a tendency to focus on spatial schematics and manipulation. These results suggest that trait episodic autobiographical memory and spatial navigation correspond to distinct mental processes.

GENDER DIFFERENCES IN VISUAL IMAGERY: OBJECT AND SPATIAL IMAGERY

Research findings on gender differences in visual imagery are mixed. One reason suggested to account for the inconsistent results has been the treatment of imagery as a unified construct despite the recent arguments of its multifaceted quality. In order to explore how visual imagery is related to gender, the present study differentiates between two different visual imagery construct; object and spatial imagery. In addition, it explores two other factors in characterizing gender differences: the type of the visual imagery measure (i.e., performance type vs. self-report measures) and academic training. One hundred and twenty undergraduates completed the Vividness of Visual Imagery (VVIQ), Mental Rotation Test (MRT) and Object-Spatial Imagery and Verbal Questionnaire (OSIVQ). Gender differences were observed in: (1) favoring females in the vividness measure as well as the object imagery questionnaire; (2) favoring males in the mental rotation performance and spatial imagery questionnaire. Academic training did not contribute as a factor. These results suggest that object and spatial imagery are differentially related to gender, and the type of the visual imagery measure does not seem to contribute to the story.

Narva as Method

This article asks how a post-Soviet city went global and became something else, mutating, in the sense of generating a new set of features that go beyond a narrow understanding of postsocialism. The research provides a synthetic conceptualisation of Narva and the organisation of its ordinary life, by combining methods of urban observation and classification with geographical and ethnographic descriptions of this city. Using visual imagery of urban objects, along with field annotations and interview quotes as the materials analysed, the article carries out a Narvaology that consists in deploying this city ‘as method’. It points out that cities such as Narva require a more relational and multi-scalar language, one with broader theoretical and methodological implications, able to account for fragmentary socio-political issues.

Pre-service Teachers’ Visuospatial Cognition: 2D to 3D Transition

This research focused on first-year university students’ visuospatial cognition in terms of producing three-dimensional (3D) representations of objects from two-dimensional (2D) views. The research was important since students often had difficulty with 2D to 3D transition activities. A synthesis from the literature established a 2D to 3D conceptual framework for an effective 2D to 3D transition. In essence, the 2D to 3D conceptual framework encompassed encode, integrate and construct as the principle facets in 2D to 3D visuospatial cognition. Students in this study were pre-service teachers enrolled for an engineering graphics module at a university in KwaZulu–Natal province of South Africa. The study was grounded on the generally accepted understanding that the ability to produce 3D images of an object from its 2D views is related to visuospatial skills. In the context of this study, visuospatial skills were viewed from the perspective of mentally visualising 3D objects from their underlying 2D views. The study followed a qualitative design via think-aloud protocol tasks and document analysis. A sample of five students was purposively selected from a population of 100 engineering graphics students. Findings revealed that students with superior spatial imagery ability achieved better success than those who relied on an object imagery process. Furthermore, findings disclosed that students who did well in 2D to 3D activities did not necessarily have greater procedural knowledge and understanding than their counterparts. These findings support the necessity of the inclusion of visuospatial-type activities in engineering graphics instructional material over and above the largely procedural nature of activities that permeates this field.

Penghitungan Objek Berdasarkan Berdasarkan Jenis Kendaraan Bermotor pada CCTV Lalu Lintas Berbasis Pengolahan Citra Digital Menggunakan Metode Background Subtraction dan Blob Detection

In the road traffic space which is often encountered by passing traffic type of vehicle. To find out the traffic conditions that are needed to calculate vehicle traffic, such as using counting or recording CCTV video. This continues the long and long process that was completed on the error data and the slow pace of traffic engineering decisions. This method is difficult to do in full because of the limited number of counters. This can be done by involving digital processing and CCTV video to be able to classify and transfer vehicle type objects. There are several methods for sharing object imagery, such as SIFT, edge detection and Monte Carlo. This research tries to use the Background Substraction and Blob Detection methods because of its superiority in determining objects and backgrounds and being able to maintain moving objects as well as analyzing screen area calculations. The results of testing with this method obtained the MSE value at the threshold of 100 and 3x3 kernel filter with a pixel area of motorcycle 34-63 pixel-X, 67-155 pixel-Y and cars 73-200 pixel-X, 79-307 pixel-Y and bus / truck 130-128 pixel-X, 305-376 pixel-Y. On evaluation, use the confusion matrix obtained in the morning with an average total of 92% and at night with a total average of 73%. It can be concluded by using CCTV installation parameters and the method used can yields higher accuracy in the morning than at night with the weakness of compiling objects that can make it easier to make objects and test the night to obtain light from vehicle lights generated as vehicle objects the flight.

Art (Pre)History: Ritual, Narrative and Visual Culture in Neolithic and Bronze Age Europe

Can we reconstruct how prehistoric people perceived things (their “ways of seeing” or visual culture)? This challenge is made more difficult by the traditional disciplinary assumptions built into prehistoric art studies, for instance focusing narrowly upon a single body of art in isolation. This paper proposes an alternative approach, using comparative study to reveal broad regional changes in visual culture. Although prehistoric art specialists rarely work comparatively, art historians are familiar with describing continent-wide general developments in visual culture and placing them in social context (for instance, the traditional broad-brush history from Classical to medieval to Renaissance systems of representation). This paper does the same for Neolithic (6000–2500 BC) vs. Bronze Age (2500–800 BC) and Iron Age (800 BC–Classical) rock and cave art from sites across Europe, uncovering broad patterns of change. The principal pattern is a shift from a Neolithic iconic art which uses heavily encoded imagery, often schematic geometric motifs, to a Bronze/Iron Age narrative art, which increasingly involves imagery of identifiable people, animals and objects. Moreover, there is also an increasing tendency for motifs to be associated in scenes rather than purely accumulative, and with contextual changes in how art is used—a movement from hidden places to more open or accessible places. Underlying all these changes is a shift in how rock and cave art was used, from citations reproducing ritual knowledge to composed arrays telling narratives of personhood.

Visual Imagery and Perception Share Neural Representations in the Alpha Frequency Band

SummaryTo behave adaptively with sufficient flexibility, biological organisms must cognize beyond immediate reaction to a physically present stimulus. For this, humans use visual mental imagery [1, 2], the ability to conjure up a vivid internal experience from memory that stands in for the percept of the stimulus. Visually imagined contents subjectively mimic perceived contents, suggesting that imagery and perception share common neural mechanisms. Using multivariate pattern analysis on human electroencephalography (EEG) data, we compared the oscillatory time courses of mental imagery and perception of objects. We found that representations shared between imagery and perception emerged specifically in the alpha frequency band. These representations were present in posterior, but not anterior, electrodes, suggesting an origin in parieto-occipital cortex. Comparison of the shared representations to computational models using representational similarity analysis revealed a relationship to later layers of deep neural networks trained on object representations, but not auditory or semantic models, suggesting representations of complex visual features as the basis of commonality. Together, our results identify and characterize alpha oscillations as a cortical signature of representations shared between visual mental imagery and perception.

Chaotic behaviour of EEG responses with an identical grasp posture

Individuals with severe neuromuscular ailments can benefit from restoring their grasp activities with a brain-controlled upper-limb neuroprosthesis. EEG signals can be utilized as the driving source, and to implement natural human-like grasping abilities. Although good accuracy has already been achieved in classifying the various grasp patterns for specific sets of objects, unseen objects are still a hurdle in real-life implementation. Generalization of grasp patterns should be explored without any prior knowledge of the objects. In this regard, the similarity of motor imagery for different objects requiring similar grasp pattern can be utilized. It is also necessary to identify the brain regions that exhibit prominent distinguishability during different grasp patterns. In this study, we propose a chaos-based method to decode the motor imagery of two quite similar Power grasp patterns-cylindrical and spherical-for holding various objects. Three distinct suitable objects were chosen for each of the two patterns, and a 29-channel EEG was taken of 18 healthy participants to explore motor imagery for grasping the objects. Nonlinear correlation dimension was employed on the EEG data, at sub-band levels α, upper β, and γ, to analyse the distinguishability, as well as the similarity of grasp patterns for the objects. ANOVA was subsequently performed on the obtained CD parameters to identify the contribution of each electrode channel. Furthermore, using an SVM classifier, more than 80% accuracy was obtained in classifying the grasping patterns at the upper β sub-band. The outcome may lead to identification of optimum feature sets of motor imagery from specific brain regions for random objects grasps.

Shaping our personal past: Assessing the phenomenology of autobiographical memory and its association with object and spatial imagery.

A new instrument has been developed that allows a comprehensive assessment of the relevant dimensions of the phenomenology of autobiographical memories (Assessment of the Phenomenology of Autobiographical Memory, APAM), and their association with visual object and spatial imagery has been examined. An initial version of APAM consisting of 30 items (the first 28 measured on a seven-point Likert-type scale) was developed and administered to a sample of 138 undergraduates. To test whether each item consistently measured the same dimension across different memories, all questions were rated for 12 cues. Results showed that 25 Likert-type items possessed adequate levels of internal consistency and unidimensionality across cues. We also found that higher levels of visual object imagery were associated with more sensory details and recollective qualities of memory, and with stronger experience of sensory and emotional reliving. The theoretical and practical usefulness of APAM as well as the relevance of visual object imagery in the phenomenology of autobiographical memory are discussed.

Participatory Environmentally Friendly Message Design: Influence of Message Features and User Characteristics.

Labels and declarations are one of the tools of environmental management aimed at improving human behavior with regard to the environment. The development process of environmental labels and declarations has been strongly recommended to include participatory consultation with users. Research studies on participatory design of environmentally friendly messages, however, have never been seen. The purpose of this study was to examine participatory environmentally friendly message design with consideration for the effects of message characteristics and user factors. Forty Hong Kong Chinese people adopted a participatory draw-and-tell approach by drawing 26 environmentally friendly messages related to eco-products, energy conservation, and recycling and waste management, and then verbally described their design drawings. The results showed that environmentally friendly messages which were familiar, concrete, easy to visualize, and contained clear context were favored by users, and users with high object imagery preference benefited most from the participatory design through the draw-and-tell approach. This study fills the gap in the literature about participatory design in environmental labels and declarations which are used for promoting eco-friendly behavior in daily life. The findings should help facilitate the participatory development process of environmentally friendly messages for conveying pro-environmental actions.

The Two Eyes of the Blind Mind: Object vs. Spatial Aphantasia?

Individual variability in imagery experiences has long attracted the interest of philosophers, educators, and psychologists. Since Aristotle’s time, it was assumed that imagery is a universal ability, so everyone possesses it. Galton first measured the vividness of subjective imagery experiences, and discovered that some individuals reported zero imagination. Recent research has coined the term “aphantasia” — an inability to form mental imagery, or having a “blind mind’s eye” (Zeman, Dewar, & Della Sala, 2015). We argue that there may be more than one type of aphantasia. Substantial behavioral and neuropsychological evidence has demonstrated a distinction between visual-object imagery (mental visualization of pictorial properties such as color, shape, brightness, and texture) and visual-spatial imagery (mental visualization of spatial locations, relations, and transformations). Notably, visual imagery is not a unitary ability, so individuals who excel in object imagery do not necessarily excel in spatial imagery, and vice versa. Here we argue that the commonly described “aphantasia” is not a general imagery deficit but rather a visual-object deficit of imagery (as aphantasic people are often identified by low scores on the Vividness of Visual Imagery Questionnaire, which assesses object imagery only). We hypothesize that “spatial aphantasia” (the inability to imagine spatial properties and relationships) can be a separate type of imagery deficit. Individuals with spatial aphantasia may not necessarily have a deficit in object imagery. We discuss future research directions examining how spatial aphantasia may manifest behaviorally and neurologically, and how object and spatial aphantasia may be related

The narrative of disability in Paolo Giordano’s novel ‘The Solitude of Prime Numbers’

The article explores the motif of loneliness in Paolo Giordano’s novel ‘The Solitude of Prime Numbers’ in its connections with the motifs of trauma and disability. Viewed as an example of trauma novel genre, the novel offers two different models of the influence of traumatized experience upon an individual. In Mattia’s case, the trauma of his sister’s disappearance caused the character’s communicative and emotional disability taken by him for granted. Mattia’s internal space is closed for everybody’s attempts to enter it, to change his life. The closure of this character is emphasized by the imagery of empty space, darkness, and water objects. InAlice’s case, the trauma intensified the girl’s solitude but did not deaden her need for other persons (notably, for Mattia).Alice’s character is more dynamic than Mattia’s. So, the girl recovers from her childhood trauma, endures at least two more traumas, and gradually accepts new quality of her life which is lonely life far from Mattia. The problem of unspeakability in the novel is inextricably linked to the main characters’ traumatizing experiences. Silence here is the consequence of the traumas and, at the same time, the reason for them. In both storylines, the unspeakability of trauma makes impossible a different ending for the characters than to stay the prime numbers which can never approach each other.

고전시가에 표출된 ‘달’ 이미지 비교를 통한 한국 고전문학사 교육 방법 - 중국인 고급 학습자를 대상으로 -

Journal of the International Network for Korean Language and Culture 16-2, 65-92. The study aims to present a way to teach Korean classical literature history to advanced Chinese learners by comparing images of the “moon” as expressed in classical poetry. The image is based on the literary customs of the poetic genre or the cultural characteristics of the period. The time-honored examination of images of the same object in a work is meaningful, in that classical poetry can be a consistent glimpse into the cultural background, or the flow of literary history, inherent in the work. This is because even within the same culture, there is a difference in the imagery of objects that change according to time. The following are examples of “moon” imagery that the classical poem e mbodies. In Hyangga, the imagery of “sublime” is prominent, in terms of shamanistic, religious, spiritual, and personal aspects. In Goryeo song, the sentiments of the poetic speaker were projected. In Sijo, it becomes a space-time background of solitude, a key element of the enjoyment found in reading and writing poetry in the bright moonlight and breeze, and a symbol of one’s lover. The teaching method, examined in this study, begins with discovering the differences in imagery by comparing various poems. Thereafter, the expression methods of the imagery are compared. In assessing these variances between texts, Chinese learners can discover how this imagery, and literary consciousness, has changed over time. Ultimately, Chinese learners will be able to consider trends in Korean classical literature history. (Seoul National University)

MENTAL IMAGERY PRACTICE AS A THERAPY FOR NAMING IMPAIRMENTS: A PRELIMINARY STUDY

Anomia remains one of the most recalcitrant linguistic disruptions in aphasia to treat. Developing successful interventions to address the word-finding deficits are complicated by the post-stroke symptom variability and inconsistent recovery patterns associated with anomia. Most of the current treatment methods, with a focus on specific compensating techniques and the repetitive practice of a limited set of items, have had variable success in naming treatment. However, it has not been possible to predict the gains in generalizing the learning beyond the stimuli used in practice or the controlled clinical setting. In this preliminary case study, we explore the value of a novel treatment concept, grounded in centuries of cognitive-perceptual exercises in mindfulness training. It incorporates the practice of mental imagery and focused attention to remedy the broken phonological assembly patterns found in word finding deficits. The aim of this study was to evaluate the potential effectiveness of practicing the repeated activation of mental imagery of concrete objects as a therapeutic tool for repairing disorders of lexical retrieval in a subject with chronic moderate to severe word-finding deficits. This trial treatment was used to assist a right-handed, 68-year old educated male with a two-and-a-half years post-onset chronic severe aphasia (anomic type) secondary to a left hemispheric infarct. Two five-week long training protocols involving common (typical) and uncommon (less typical) categories of pictured objects were used for treating anomia. The first trial involved the blocked presentation of stimuli; the second trial, undertaken a year after, included a random presentation of stimuli. It was found that the impact was manifested in three ways: (1) an improved verbal naming of the treated objects; (2) retention of therapeutic gains by a successful generalization to untreated similar lexical items; and (3) importantly, serendipitous gains in the ability to concurrently write the names of the pictured objects. The post-treatment data on all blocked lexical trials, and some random lexical trials, were found to be significant on the Fisher’s exact test. The use of the visual mental imagery-based therapy had a positive impact on the partial restoration of the subject’s naming.

Mathematical models of extended objects used for planning submeter resolution satellite imagery

This paper presents mathematical models describing extended objects with complex configuration used for planning satellite imagery with optoelectronic scanners of submeter spatial resolution. The most efficient spline approximation methods were used for mathematical description of extended objects with complex configuration. The proposed method ensures obtaining maximum coverage of the extended object in one-orbit period by choosing an appropriate spline smoothing coefficient, shifting and turning coverage contour. The results of computer simulation of extended object imagery are given, taking into account the swath width of the imaging instrument, the required scanning direction and limitations on retargeting angles range and satellite angular velocities.

The format of mental imagery: from a critical review to an integrated embodied representation approach.

The issue of the format of mental imagery is still an open debate. The classical analogue (depictive)-propositional (descriptive) debate has not provided definitive conclusions. Over the years, the debate has shifted within the frame of the embodied cognition approach, which focuses on the interdependence of perception, cognition and action. Although the simulation approach still retains the concept of representation, the more radical line of the embodied cognition approach emphasizes the importance of action and clearly disregards the concept of representation. In particular, the enactive approach focuses on motor procedures that allow the body to interact with the environment, whereas the sensorimotor approach focuses on the possession and exercise of sensorimotor knowledge about how the sensory input changes as a function of movement. In this review, the embodied approaches are presented and critically discussed. Then, in an attempt to show that the format of mental imagery varies according to the ability and the strategy used to represent information, the role of individual differences in imagery ability (e.g., vividness and expertise) and imagery strategy (e.g., object vs. spatial imagers) is reviewed. Since vividness is mainly associated with perceptual information, reflecting the activation level of specific imagery systems, whereas the preferred strategy used is mainly associated with perceptual (e.g., object imagery) or amodal and motor information (e.g., spatial imagery), the format of mental imagery appears to be based on dynamic embodied representations, depending on imagery abilities and imagery strategies.

Verbal Paired Associates and the Hippocampus: The Role of Scenes.

It is widely agreed that patients with bilateral hippocampal damage are impaired at binding pairs of words together. Consequently, the verbal paired associates (VPA) task has become emblematic of hippocampal function. This VPA deficit is not well understood and is particularly difficult for hippocampal theories with a visuospatial bias to explain (e.g., cognitive map and scene construction theories). Resolving the tension among hippocampal theories concerning the VPA could be important for leveraging a fuller understanding of hippocampal function. Notably, VPA tasks typically use high imagery concrete words and so conflate imagery and binding. To determine why VPA engages the hippocampus, we devised an fMRI encoding task involving closely matched pairs of scene words, pairs of object words, and pairs of very low imagery abstract words. We found that the anterior hippocampus was engaged during processing of both scene and object word pairs in comparison to abstract word pairs, despite binding occurring in all conditions. This was also the case when just subsequently remembered stimuli were considered. Moreover, for object word pairs, fMRI activity patterns in anterior hippocampus were more similar to those for scene imagery than object imagery. This was especially evident in participants who were high imagery users and not in mid and low imagery users. Overall, our results show that hippocampal engagement during VPA, even when object word pairs are involved, seems to be evoked by scene imagery rather than binding. This may help to resolve the issue that visuospatial hippocampal theories have in accounting for verbal memory.