title: Visual Imagery and False Memory for Pictures: A Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Study in Healthy Participants.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Visual mental imagery might be critical in the ability to discriminate imagined from perceived pictures. Our aim was to investigate the neural bases of this specific type of reality-monitoring process in individuals with high visual imagery abilities.
  
  
  METHODS
  A reality-monitoring task was administered to twenty-six healthy participants using functional magnetic resonance imaging. During the encoding phase, 45 words designating common items, and 45 pictures of other common items, were presented in random order. During the recall phase, participants were required to remember whether a picture of the item had been presented, or only a word. Two subgroups of participants with a propensity for high vs. low visual imagery were contrasted.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Activation of the amygdala, left inferior occipital gyrus, insula, and precuneus were observed when high visual imagers encoded words later remembered as pictures. At the recall phase, these same participants activated the middle frontal gyrus and inferior and superior parietal lobes when erroneously remembering pictures.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The formation of visual mental images might activate visual brain areas as well as structures involved in emotional processing. High visual imagers demonstrate increased activation of a fronto-parietal source-monitoring network that enables distinction between imagined and perceived pictures.
authors.affiliation: Parc Sanitari Sant Joan de Déu, Universitat de Barcelona, Sant Boi de Llobregat, Spain.|Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de Salud Mental (CIBERSAM), Madrid, Spain.
authors.forename: Christian
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Stephan-Otto
authors.affiliation: Parc Sanitari Sant Joan de Déu, Universitat de Barcelona, Sant Boi de Llobregat, Spain.|Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de Salud Mental (CIBERSAM), Madrid, Spain.|Section of Clinical Psychology, Department of Education, Psychology, and Philosophy, University of Cagliari, Cagliari, Italy.|Facultat de Medicina, Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain.
authors.forename: Sara
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Siddi
authors.affiliation: School of Life & Health Sciences, Aston University, Birmingham, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Carl
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Senior
authors.affiliation: Hospital Sant Joan de Déu, Esplugues de Llobregat, Spain.
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Muñoz-Samons
authors.affiliation: Parc Sanitari Sant Joan de Déu, Universitat de Barcelona, Sant Boi de Llobregat, Spain.|Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de Salud Mental (CIBERSAM), Madrid, Spain.
authors.forename: Susana
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ochoa
authors.affiliation: Parc Sanitari Sant Joan de Déu, Universitat de Barcelona, Sant Boi de Llobregat, Spain.
authors.forename: Ana María
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Sánchez-Laforga
authors.affiliation: Parc Sanitari Sant Joan de Déu, Universitat de Barcelona, Sant Boi de Llobregat, Spain.|Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de Salud Mental (CIBERSAM), Madrid, Spain.
authors.forename: Gildas
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Brébion
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000679:Amygdala / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D001921:Brain / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D001931:Brain Mapping; D003702:Delusions; D004644:Emotions; D005260:Female; D006212:Hallucinations; D064368:Healthy Volunteers; D006801:Humans; D019018:Imagery, Psychotherapy; D007092:Imagination / Q000502:physiology; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D008568:Memory / Q000502:physiology*; D011939:Mental Recall / Q000502:physiology; D008875:Middle Aged; D014785:Vision, Ocular / Q000502:physiology*; D055815:Young Adult