NIHR Exeter Clinical Research Facility, University of Exeter Medical School, St Luke's Campus, Exeter, UK.
Discipline of Psychology, University of Exeter, Washington Singer Laboratories, Exeter, UK.
Cortex. 2018 Aug;105:26-40. doi: 10.1016/j.cortex.2017.09.014. Epub 2017 Oct 3.
Using the Vividness of Visual Imagery Questionnaire we selected 14 high-scoring and 15 low-scoring healthy participants from an initial sample of 111 undergraduates. The two groups were matched on measures of age, IQ, memory and mood but differed significantly in imagery vividness. We used fMRI to examine brain activation while participants looked at, or later imagined, famous faces and famous buildings. Group comparison revealed that the low-vividness group activated a more widespread set of brain regions while visualising than the high-vividness group. Parametric analysis of brain activation in relation to imagery vividness across the entire group of participants revealed distinct patterns of positive and negative correlation. In particular, several posterior cortical regions show a positive correlation with imagery vividness: regions of the fusiform gyrus, posterior cingulate and parahippocampal gyri (BAs 19, 29, 31 and 36) displayed exclusively positive correlations. By contrast several frontal regions including parts of anterior cingulate cortex (BA 24) and inferior frontal gyrus (BAs 44 and 47), as well as the insula (BA 13), auditory cortex (BA 41) and early visual cortices (BAs 17 and 18) displayed exclusively negative correlations. We discuss these results in relation to a previous, functional imaging study of a clinical case of 'blind imagination', and to the existing literature on the functional imaging correlates of imagery vividness and related phenomena in visual and other domains.
我们使用生动的视觉意象问卷从最初的 111 名本科生样本中选出了 14 名高分和 15 名低分的健康参与者。这两组在年龄、智商、记忆和情绪方面相匹配，但在想象力生动性方面存在显著差异。我们使用 fMRI 检查参与者观看或稍后想象著名面孔和著名建筑时的大脑激活情况。组间比较显示，低生动度组在进行想象时激活的大脑区域比高生动度组更为广泛。对整个参与者群体的大脑激活与想象生动性之间的参数分析揭示了明显的正相关和负相关模式。特别是几个后皮质区域与想象生动性呈正相关：梭状回、后扣带和海马旁回（BA 19、29、31 和 36）显示出明显的正相关。相比之下，几个额区包括前扣带皮层的一部分（BA 24）和额下回（BA 44 和 47）、岛叶（BA 13）、听觉皮层（BA 41）和早期视觉皮层（BA 17 和 18）则显示出明显的负相关。我们将这些结果与之前关于“盲目想象”临床病例的功能成像研究以及关于想象生动性和相关现象的功能成像相关性的现有文献进行了讨论。
