Mental Imagery Research Articles

Mapping Gilles de la Tourette syndrome through the distress and relief associated with tic-related behaviors: an fMRI study

Personal distress associated with tic urges or inhibition and relief associated with tic production are defining features of the personal experience in Gilles de la Tourette syndrome (GTS). These affective phenomena have not been studied using fMRI, hindering our understanding of GTS pathophysiology and possible treatments. Here, we present a novel cross-sectional fMRI study designed to map tic-related phenomenology using distress and relief as predicting variables. We adopted a mental imagery approach and dissected the brain activity associated with different phases of tic behaviors, premonitory urges, and the ensuing tic execution or inhibition: these were compared with the mental simulation of “relaxed situations” and pre-determined stereotyped motor behaviors. We then explored whether the ensuing brain patterns correlated with the distress or relief perceived for the different phases of the tasks. Patients experienced a higher level of distress during the imagery of tic-triggering scenarios and no relief during tic inhibition. On the other hand, patients experienced significant relief during tic imagery. Distress during tic-triggering scenarios and relief during tic imagery were significantly correlated. The distress perceived during urges correlated with increased activation in cortical sensorimotor areas, suggesting a motor alarm. Conversely, relief during tic execution was positively associated with the activity of a subcortical network. The activity of the putamen was associated with both distress during urges and relief during tic execution. These findings highlight the importance of assessing the affective component of tic-related phenomenology. Subcortical structures may be causally involved in the affective component of tic pathophysiology, with the putamen playing a central role in both tic urge and generation. We believe that our results can be readily translated into clinical practice for the development of personalized treatment plans tailored to each patient’s unique needs.

Recovery of Volitional Motor Control and Overground Walking in Participants With Chronic Clinically Motor Complete Spinal Cord Injury: Restoration of Rehabilitative Function With Epidural Spinal Stimulation (RESTORES) Trial-A Preliminary Study.

Spinal cord injury (SCI) is damage to any part of the spinal cord resulting in paralysis, bowel and/or bladder incontinence, and loss of sensation and other bodily functions. Current treatments for chronic SCI are focused on managing symptoms and preventing further damage to the spinal cord with limited neuro-restorative interventions. Recent research and independent clinical trials of spinal cord stimulation (SCS) or intensive neuro-rehabilitation including neuro-robotics in participants with SCI have suggested potential malleability of the neuronal networks for neurological recovery. We hypothesize that epidural electrical stimulation (EES) delivered via SCS in conjunction with mental imagery practice and robotic neuro-rehabilitation can synergistically improve volitional motor function below the level of injury in participants with chronic clinically motor-complete SCI. In our pilot clinical RESTORES trial (RESToration Of Rehabilitative function with Epidural spinal Stimulation), we investigate the feasibility of this combined multi-modal approach in restoring volitional motor control and achieving independent overground locomotion in participants with chronic motor complete thoracic SCI. Secondary aims are to assess the safety of this combination therapy including the off-label SCS usage as well as improving functional outcome measures. To our knowledge, this is the first clinical trial that investigates the combined impact of this multi-modal EES and rehabilitation strategy in participants with chronic motor complete SCI. Two participants with chronic motor-complete thoracic SCI were recruited for this pilot trial. Both participants have successfully regained volitional motor control below their level of SCI injury and achieved independent overground walking within a month of post-operative stimulation and rehabilitation. There were no adverse events noted in our trial and there was an improvement in post-operative truncal stability score. Results from this pilot study demonstrates the feasibility of combining EES, mental imagery practice and robotic rehabilitation in improving volitional motor control below level of SCI injury and restoring independent overground walking for participants with chronic motor-complete SCI. Our team believes that this provides very exciting promise in a field currently devoid of disease-modifying therapies.

Is visual content modality a limiting factor for social capital? Examining user engagement within Instagram-based brand communities

AbstractIn the age of virtual cocreation of value by consumers, the role of the content modality in the development of social capital has been largely overlooked. Given that different modalities lead to varied forms of digital communication, this study examines whether a predominantly visual modality can enhance social capital and improve the collective value perceived by members of an online brand community. Through quantitative analysis, this study demonstrates that the visual modality of Instagram fosters social interactions, shaping the platform’s engagement dynamics. Affect-based visual imagery is persuasive in eliciting responses that match the hedonic nature of the platform. Therefore, fostering a positive emotional connection to both the community and the brand can lead to increased loyalty. This research proposes a different perspective on the interactive social exchange that facilitates the establishment of social capital. Value cocreation engagement is not necessarily dependent on the extensiveness of information depth. Adopting an affective orientation in persuasion has shown efficacy in forming attitudes towards attitudinal objects, particularly the community and brand.

Visualcy: the progenitor of literacy and numeracy

This article aims to enhance the pedagogy of drawing by integrating relevant aspects of art history and aesthetics with perception and communication theories. Visualcy is defined as an articulacy with visual languages, from which the more familiar ‘3Rs’ (Reading, wRiting, and aRithmetic), alluding to literacy and numeracy, evolved. It embraces not only the more familiar definition of ‘visual literacy’ in the sense of how people perceive, interpret, and learn from existing visual imagery, but also the semogenic facility for producing the means to understanding through the articulation of visual elements (line, shape, tone, texture, colour) in the construction of new images. After reviewing the role of drawing in cultural evolution, the article discusses drawing in relation to aesthetics, before outlining a pedagogy of drawing designed to nurture visualcy, of central importance to human culture.

Evaluating the Feasibility of Visual Imagery for an EEG-Based Brain-Computer Interface.

Visual imagery, or the mental simulation of visual information from memory, could serve as an effective control paradigm for a brain-computer interface (BCI) due to its ability to directly convey the user's intention with many natural ways of envisioning an intended action. However, multiple initial investigations into using visual imagery as a BCI control strategies have been unable to fully evaluate the capabilities of true spontaneous visual mental imagery. One major limitation in these prior works is that the target image is typically displayed immediately preceding the imagery period. This paradigm does not capture spontaneous mental imagery as would be necessary in an actual BCI application but something more akin to short-term retention in visual working memory. Results from the present study show that short-term visual imagery following the presentation of a specific target image provides a stronger, more easily classifiable neural signature in EEG than spontaneous visual imagery from long-term memory following an auditory cue for the image. We also show that short-term visual imagery and visual perception share commonalities in the most predictive electrodes and spectral features. However, visual imagery received greater influence from frontal electrodes whereas perception was mostly confined to occipital electrodes. This suggests that visual perception is primarily driven by sensory information whereas visual imagery has greater contributions from areas associated with memory and attention. This work provides the first direct comparison of short-term and long-term visual imagery tasks and provides greater insight into the feasibility of using visual imagery as a BCI control strategy.

The role of environmental mental imagery in impact beliefs about climate change mitigation and pro-environmental intentions

People are aware that climate change is happening, yet many do not act on this information. Increasing the awareness that some pro-environmental behaviors have a larger impact than others has the potential to be a piece of the puzzle needed to increase climate action. The current study aims to create an intervention, by combining feedback about the efficacy of pro-environmental behaviors and a novel mental imagery task, intended to help people update their impact beliefs and increase their intention to engage in pro-environmental behavior. The participants (N = 1012) were recruited online and randomized to one of three conditions: 1) Environmentally themed mental imagery in combination with efficacy feedback; 2) Efficacy feedback only; 3) Control. As predicted, we found that efficacy feedback affected the intention to act pro-environmentally, however, the intention to act increased more when the feedback was combined with a mental imagery task. In addition, we found that combining the two interventions increased the perceived impact of pro-environmental behaviors to a higher degree than efficacy feedback alone. Mediation analyses indicated that the change of impact beliefs mediated the change in pro-environmental intention in the combination condition, but not in the other conditions. These results suggest the potential aggregated effect of using mental imagery with efficacy feedback in behavioral interventions aimed at mitigating climate change.

The Experience of Music in Aphantasia: Emotion, Reward, and Everyday Functions

Visual imagery has been proposed to be one of eight mechanisms by which music induces emotion in listeners. Initial research into aphantasia, a condition referring to individuals who do not (or only minimally) form visual imagery in their mind's eye, suggests that aphantasics may experience reduced emotional experiences in response to imagined stimuli. In this two-part online investigation, we sought to explore the emotional experiences of aphantasics within the context of music listening. In Survey 1, we compared 51 aphantasics to 51 control individuals in terms of their experiences of visual imagery, liking, and felt emotional intensity when listening to three film music excerpts. We found significant group differences in terms of visual imagery and felt emotional intensity, but not liking. In Survey 2, we examined aphantasics’ ability to recognize emotions conveyed by music, and their patterns of experience of, and engagement with, music in everyday life by comparing the responses of 29 aphantasics with 29 matched controls. We found no differences in terms of emotion discrimination ability. However, aphantasics generally experienced less Reminiscence (dimension from the Adaptive Functions of Music Listening scale) to music, as well as fewer Episodic Memories (dimension from the MecScale). Aphantasics and control listeners did not exhibit differences in terms of sensitivity to musical reward (measured using the BMRQ) or in terms of musical sophistication (measured using the Gold-MSI). Finally, our findings suggest nuanced differences between controls and those with pure and minimal aphantasia. In all, we reveal the influence that aphantasia can have on emotional responses to music and thus provide further evidence for the relationship between visual imagery and music-induced emotion.

‘Knees being set on fire’: a qualitative study exploring the impact of intrusive mental imagery on chronic pain patients

Abstract Chronic pain is common and debilitating, and recommended treatments are only moderately effective for pain relief. Focus has shifted to refining targets for change within psychological therapy to improve pain management. Evidence has shown the role of intrusive images in many psychological disorders. However, only a few studies have advanced our knowledge of the presence and impact of mental imagery in chronic pain. This exploratory study aimed to increase our understanding of how people with chronic pain perceive intrusive visual images to influence their daily life. The study employed a qualitative design, using semi-structured interviews to explore the content, emotional valence, cognitive and behavioural impact of pain-related visual images of ten participants with self-reported diagnosis of chronic pain. Data analysis was conducted by performing an inductive thematic analysis. Three key themes were identified: (1) ‘I start to create images in my head’: pain-related mental images, which revolves around descriptions of participants’ most significant visual image; (2) metaphors for pain, related to the imagery as a means to conceptualise and give meaning to the pain; and (3) “With the pain comes the image”: a companion to pain, which focuses on the role of intrusive images in the experience of pain. Results show that pain-related mental imagery appeared to be an intrusive, uncontrollable, and vivid cognitive accompaniment for many pain sufferers. The findings suggest that mental images may serve as an additional target in cognitive behavioural therapy to enhance individuals’ cognitive, behavioural and emotional change. Key learning aims (1) To understand the role of mental imagery in the daily life of individuals with chronic pain. (2) To examine the impact of intrusive images on the emotions, cognitions, and behaviours of people with chronic pain. (3) To consider clinical implications for CBT interventions targeting pain-related mental images to manage chronic pain.

Music and Visual Imagery: Electroencephalographic Evidence of General and Modality-Specific Activity Patterns

There is a substantial corpus of evidence about the shared brain mechanism between imagery and perception. However, the psychophysiological exploration concerning possible mechanisms underlying modality-independent mental imagery and how much it involves or depends on other cognitive processes, such as attention and memory, is still scant. To address this, we performed an electroencephalographic (EEG) study to compare brain activity related to auditory/musical and visual imagery to identify shared and specific activity patterns. The electrical brain activity of 12 musicians was measured while they perceived or imagined either auditory or visual stimuli with two levels of complexity. Mean power differences were calculated between tasks and conditions for alpha, beta, and gamma bands. For the alpha band, an increase in mean relative power was observed in occipital and parietal areas throughout the paradigm. Regarding level of complexity of the imagery tasks, same-modality contrasts (i.e., auditory simple vs. auditory complex) showed small-magnitude differences in power that were only significant for a few locations along the midline. However, when comparing across imagery modalities (i.e., auditory simple vs. visual simple), the significantly different locations increased in number and were mainly distributed in central and occipital regions, where differences were positive for mean alpha power and negative for beta and gamma bands. With respect to resting (baseline) power, the main differences were observed as a wider distribution of beta power increments in relation to visual imagery tasks, and similarities were identified for both auditory and visual imagery tasks as an increase in gamma power in right frontal locations, increased frontal and pre-frontal beta power, and some bilateral parietal increased beta power. These results seem to support the hypothesis that mental imagery, to some extent, involves areas related to memory retrieval, attention, semantic processing, and motor preparation, in addition to the primary areas corresponding to each sensory modality.

Analysis of the Role of the Unconscious in Surrealism and its Comparison with Symbolism in Expressing the Concept of Imagination in Ibn Arabi’s Mystical Revelations

Symbolism and Surrealism, as two artistic and literary movements, aim to discover hidden and spiritual realities through the deep layers of the human mind and imagination. Symbolism, which emerged as a reaction against Naturalism and Positivism, believes in a reality beyond the perceptible world that is depicted through symbols, dreams, and imagination. Meanwhile, Surrealism, deeply influenced by Freud’s psychoanalytic theories, emphasizes the unconscious and dreams, seeking hidden truths through unusual perceptions and mental imagery. In this context, the thoughts of Muhyiddin Ibn Arabi, especially in the realm of sleep, dreams, and the world of imagination, establish a profound connection between Islamic mysticism and these two movements. Ibn Arabi considers dreams as a means of accessing spiritual worlds and embodying meanings in symbols, a view that aligns with the approach of Symbolists and Surrealists in uncovering hidden realities. This article examines the comparative concepts of dreams and imagination in Symbolism and Surrealism and compares them with Ibn Arabi's mystical revelations in the discovery of symbolic secrets. The results of this study show that both movements utilize the capacities of the unconscious and symbolism to uncover a reality beyond apparent truths. However, Ibn Arabi employs divine revelation and symbols to understand the ultimate truth, while Surrealism focuses on mental complexities and the inner world. This comparative analysis contributes to a new understanding of the interactions between meaning and the unconscious in these two intellectual currents and highlights the central role of Ibn Arabi in advancing discussions related to hidden and internal realities in the expression of the symbols of art and literature.

Youth Athletes' Self-Esteem: The Impact of Integrated Psychological Skills Training.

Study on the effect of psychological skills training on self-esteem (SE) in young athletes. 10 swimmers and 35 volleyball players, split into an intervention group (25) and a control group (18). The intervention entailed a 3-week psychological skills training program covering arousal management, breathing, relaxation, mental imagery, and self-talk. Multilevel growth curve analyses evaluated SE changes. The intervention group showed significant improvements in multiple SE dimensions-physical self-worth, fitness, athletic competence, strength, and body attractiveness but not general SE. This study provides initial evidence of a multimodal psychological skills training's effectiveness in enhancing young athletes' domain-specific SE. It highlights the role of domain-specific SE in young athletes' well-being. Future research should examine psychological and physiological correlations and assess the long-term SE development in adolescent athletes.

Environmental communication through visual imagery: SEAHIVE®, a green-gray installation at Wahoo Bay, Pompano Beach, Florida, as an educational tool

Environmental communication through visual imagery: SEAHIVE^®, a green-gray installation at Wahoo Bay, Pompano Beach, Florida, as an educational tool

Magic for the mind's eye: A promising avenue for more universal design in the art of magic.

In the art of conjuring, as well as in cognitive science, possibilities for designing magic tricks that are suitable for people who are blind or visually impaired have only rarely been considered. In this article, we argue that many magic tricks which are normally presented in a visual way, are not inherently based on visual processes, but instead on systematic illusions and limitations in visual imagery and mental simulations. Accordingly, it should be possible to adapt these tricks for presentation in a non-visual format, which should be suitable for people who are blind or visually impaired. As an initial test of this general approach, we adapted three magic tricks for non-visual presentation and presented them for blindfolded participants. Standard versions of the tricks were also presented to seeing participants. The participants in both groups were asked to indicate how magical they felt the tricks were, as well as whether they had any idea about the secrets behind them. The results suggest that the non-visual versions of the tricks are roughly comparable to the regular visual versions. We conclude that adapting magic tricks based on illusions of imagery for non-visual presentation appears to be a promising avenue for more universal design in the art of magic. We also argue that the illusions of imagery responsible for the experiences of magic evoked presents interesting challenges for basic cognitive science.

"Picture this from there": spatial perspective-taking in developmental visuospatial disorder and developmental coordination disorder.

Either Developmental Visuospatial Disorder (DVSD) and Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD) present with difficulties in visuospatial processing, even though entailing different degrees of impairment. Among the visuospatial domain, spatial perspective taking is essential to interact with the environment and is significantly involved in many daily activities (e.g., environment navigation and spatial orienting). Notwithstanding, no previous studies have investigated this spatial domain in children with DVSD and limited evidence is available regarding DCD. Consistent with a transdiagnostic approach, the first goal of the present study was to compare spatial perspective taking abilities of these groups, also including a control group of not diagnosed peers (ND). Secondly, the role of different fine-motor and visuo-spatial predictors on the spatial perspective taking performance was considered. A total of 85 participants (DVSD = 26; DCD = 26; ND = 33), aged between 8 and 16 years old, were included in the study. Tasks assessing spatial perspective taking, fine-motor, visual imagery, and mental rotation skills, as well as visuo-spatial working memory were administered. Overall, our results confirmed weaknesses in spatial perspective taking in both clinical groups, with the DVSD obtaining the lowest scores. Similarities and differences in the predictors accounting for the performance in the spatial perspective taking task emerged, suggesting the possible employment of different fine-motor or visuospatial strategies by group. Findings are discussed considering the potential impact they may have both in research and clinical practice.

Comparing the Effectiveness of Instructional Mental Imagery and Tolerance of Ambiguity Training on Students' Academic Procrastination

Comparing the Effectiveness of Instructional Mental Imagery and Tolerance of Ambiguity Training on Students' Academic Procrastination

Minding the gap: a sex difference in young infants' mental rotation through thirty degrees of arc.

Mental rotation (MR) is an important feature of spatial cognition invoking mental imagery of an object's appearance when viewed from a new orientation. Prior studies have revealed evidence of MR in infants, including a sex difference similar to that detected in older populations. Some of these studies used visual habituation methods whereby infants were familiarized with an object rotating through a 240° angle, followed by test trials showing either the habituation object or a mirror image object rotating through the previously unseen 120° angle. Significantly longer looking at either of these objects was taken to reflect infants' ability to recognize the habituation object even when seen from a novel viewpoint, suggesting the capacity for MR. However, these infants' responses could, in theory, be explained with reference to perceptual discrimination rather than MR, because the views of the habituation and test objects were very similar in some video frames. In the current study, we observed a diverse population of 5-month-olds (24 females, 24 males) for evidence of MR through 30° of arc. In this more challenging test, our stimuli left a 30° gap angle between critical video frames representing the habituation and test objects. Consistent with earlier reports, we found that relative to female infants, male infants looked significantly longer at the mirror image test stimulus immediately following habituation. These results add to an emerging consensus that some young infants are capable of MR, and that male and female infants on average behave differently in this type of MR task.

АРХИТЕКТУРНАЯОБРАЗНОСТЬВКОНТЕКСТЕРАЗВИТИЯИНФОРМАЦИОННО-КОММУНИКАЦИОННЫХТЕХНОЛОГИЙ: «НОВАЯЗРЕЛИЩНОСТЬ» ИКИБЕРПАНК

The development of new information and communication technologies not only offered architecture new tools, but also largely changed the very content of architectural imagery. One of the sources of new artistic images of modern megacities has become the virtual world of computer video games. The purpose of the article is an attempt to study changes in urban spaces under the mutual influence of urban planning, architecture and the virtual environment of computer games. This work examines in more detail the influence on the artistic imagery of modern architecture in such areas as cultural trends generated by information, communication and virtual technologies and the “game design” of computer games, and also examines such a phenomenon as cyberpunk. Several sources of visual imagery of this trend have been identified, including cinema and stylistic trends born in the twentieth century (brutalism and metabolism), as well as the urban aesthetics of eastern metropolises with their mixture of different cultures, high technological development and high building density. The author defines the characteristics of cyberpunk architecture and provides examples of real architectural objects that can be attributed to this direction.

Metaphor and metonymy in translation: transformation of images in Russian versions of Guillaume Apollinaire's works

This study is devoted to the nuances of metaphor and metonymy translation, in particular, to the works of Guillaume Apollinaire and their Russian translations. The article begins by defining the theoretical foundations of metaphor and metonymy, drawing on linguistic and cognitive theories to emphasise their importance in literary discourse. It then provides a thorough analysis of Apollinaire's unique stylistic elements, highlighting the fusion of visual and verbal poetics and how these aspects pose a challenge to the translator. The main part of the study is an in-depth analysis of selected Apollinaire works, offering a comparative analysis of the original French texts and their Russian counterparts. This segment highlights the difficulties inherent in translating Apollinaire's rich metaphorical and metonymic language, marked by a characteristic combination of visual imagery and linguistic innovation. The study uses a range of linguistic examples to demonstrate both successful and problematic translation solutions, providing a multifaceted insight into the translation process. The paper then examines the specific difficulties of translating metaphor and metonymy into Russian, given the linguistic and cultural differences between French and Russian. It presents various translation techniques such as substitution, modulation and word-for-word translation and evaluates their effectiveness in bridging the gap between the two languages. The study also critically examines examples where direct translation fails to convey the essence of the original, emphasising the importance of cultural context and idiomatic appropriateness in translation. The conclusion summarises the findings, highlighting the crucial role of cultural and cognitive considerations when translating metaphors and metonymies.

Adults' spatial scaling of tactile maps: Insights from studying sighted, early and late blind individuals.

The current study investigated spatial scaling of tactile maps among blind adults and blindfolded sighted controls. We were specifically interested in identifying spatial scaling strategies as well as effects of different scaling directions (up versus down) on participants' performance. To this aim, we asked late blind participants (with visual memory, Experiment 1) and early blind participants (without visual memory, Experiment 2) as well as sighted blindfolded controls to encode a map including a target and to place a response disc at the same spot on an empty, constant-sized referent space. Maps had five different sizes resulting in five scaling factors (1:3, 1:2, 1:1, 2:1, 3:1), allowing to investigate different scaling directions (up and down) in a single, comprehensive design. Accuracy and speed of learning about the target location as well as responding served as dependent variables. We hypothesized that participants who can use visual mental representations (i.e., late blind and blindfolded sighted participants) may adopt mental transformation scaling strategies. However, our results did not support this hypothesis. At the same time, we predicted the usage of relative distance scaling strategies in early blind participants, which was supported by our findings. Moreover, our results suggested that tactile maps can be scaled as accurately and even faster by blind participants than by sighted participants. Furthermore, irrespective of the visual status, participants of each visual status group gravitated their responses towards the center of the space. Overall, it seems that a lack of visual imagery does not impair early blind adults' spatial scaling ability but causes them to use a different strategy than sighted and late blind individuals.

ФУНКЦИОНАЛЬНЫЕ ОСОБЕННОСТИ СКАЛЬДИЧЕСКИХ ЖАНРОВ

The article analyses the functional characteristics of the main genres of skaldic poetry: panegyric verse, memorial poems (erfidrápur), shield poems (skjaldardrápur), head-ransom verse (höfuðlausn), love poetry (mansöngr) and libellous poems (níð). Olga Freidenberg’s conception of the salvational and chthonic functions of the word is applied to the genres of skaldic poetry which are discussed in the paper. Skaldic libellous verse (níð), rooted in rune magic, is endowed with a chthonic function, whereas head-ransoms characterised by autonominative, equitemporal semantics, acquire a salvational role. The salvational role of head-ransoms (höfuðlausn) is ensured by the use of auto-referential semantics (when the speech act is directed not at the addressee but at the creator of the poem himself), of performative formulas and of a hyper-structuralised form – runhent meter with final rhyme overloaded with sound devices. The pragmatic function of love poems (mansöngr) is determined by their intended influence on the addressee: they serve to manipulate the addressee’s mentality and behaviour, ensuring the performance of a particular action (granting favour to a skald). Erfidrápur are endowed not only with a memorial function but also with a life-affirming role, conditioned by the idea of familial renewal and vitality. The function of skaldic shield poems (skjaldardrápur) is dissociated in the article from descriptive visual imagery of material objects. It is argued in the paper that shield poems function as thesauri of mythological kennings: their poetic form facilitates the process of memorising kennings, and their prose context provides explanations and motivates their usage. Ragnarsdrápa, which alludes to, rather than describes, mythological scenes of Þorr’s fishing for Jǫrmungandr, Hamðir and Sǫrli, taking revenge on Jǫrmunrekkr, and the never-ending battle between Heðin and Hǫgni, is not descriptive, or narrative, or intentionally communicative. The marginality of the communicative function of skaldic poetry is conditioned by violation of direct word-order, the use of parataxis, which obscures the syntactic structure of a stanza, of kennings with their informative deficiency, of inserted and interlaced clauses, breaking the semantic organisation of a half-stanza, and of increased significance of sound repetitions, which is characteristic of magic and ritual.