title: Imagery and perception share cortical representations of content and location.
abstract: Visual imagery allows us to vividly imagine scenes in the absence of visual stimulation. The likeness of visual imagery to visual perception suggests that they might share neural mechanisms in the brain. Here, we directly investigated whether perception and visual imagery share cortical representations. Specifically, we used a combination of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and multivariate pattern classification to assess whether imagery and perception encode the "category" of objects and their "location" in a similar fashion. Our results indicate that the fMRI response patterns for different categories of imagined objects can be used to predict the fMRI response patters for seen objects. Similarly, we found a shared representation of location in low-level and high-level ventral visual cortex. Thus, our results support the view that imagery and perception are based on similar neural representations.
authors.affiliation: Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience Berlin, Charité-Universitätsmedizin Berlin, 10115 Berlin, Germany. rmcichy@gmail.com
authors.forename: Radoslaw M
authors.initials: RM
authors.lastname: Cichy
authors.forename: Jakob
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Heinzle
authors.forename: John-Dylan
authors.initials: JD
authors.lastname: Haynes
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001931:Brain Mapping; D004192:Discrimination, Psychological; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D007092:Imagination / Q000502:physiology*; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D010100:Oxygen / Q000097:blood; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual / Q000502:physiology*; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D013028:Space Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D014793:Visual Cortex / Q000098:blood supply / Q000502:physiology*; D014795:Visual Pathways; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D010100:Oxygen