Dijkstra Nadine
Department of Imaging Neuroscience, Institute of Neurology, University College London, London WC1E 6BT, UK.
Vision (Basel). 2024 May 2;8(2):29. doi: 10.3390/vision8020029.
The question of whether the early visual cortex (EVC) is involved in visual mental imagery remains a topic of debate. In this paper, I propose that the inconsistency in findings can be explained by the unique challenges associated with investigating EVC activity during imagery. During perception, the EVC processes low-level features, which means that activity is highly sensitive to variation in visual details. If the EVC has the same role during visual mental imagery, any change in the visual details of the mental image would lead to corresponding changes in EVC activity. Within this context, the question should not be whether the EVC is 'active' during imagery but how its activity relates to specific imagery properties. Studies using methods that are sensitive to variation in low-level features reveal that imagery can recruit the EVC in similar ways as perception. However, not all mental images contain a high level of visual details. Therefore, I end by considering a more nuanced view, which states that imagery can recruit the EVC, but that does not mean that it always does so.
早期视觉皮层（EVC）是否参与视觉心理意象这一问题仍然是一个争论的话题。在本文中，我提出研究结果的不一致性可以通过在研究意象过程中EVC活动所面临的独特挑战来解释。在感知过程中，EVC处理低级特征，这意味着活动对视觉细节的变化高度敏感。如果EVC在视觉心理意象过程中具有相同的作用，那么心理意象视觉细节的任何变化都会导致EVC活动的相应变化。在此背景下，问题不应该是EVC在意象过程中是否“活跃”，而是其活动如何与特定的意象属性相关。使用对低级特征变化敏感的方法进行的研究表明，意象可以以与感知相似的方式征募EVC。然而，并非所有心理意象都包含高水平的视觉细节。因此，我最后考虑一种更细致入微的观点，即意象可以征募EVC，但这并不意味着它总是如此。
