ReviewTrends in cognitive sciences2015
Mental Imagery: Functional Mechanisms and Clinical Applications.
Review in Trends in cognitive sciences, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 284 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
284 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Mental imagery of suicide and non-suicidal self-injury: A meta-analysis and systematic review.Clinical psychology review · 2023Pooled it
- Imagery ability assessments: a cross-disciplinary systematic review and quality evaluation of psychometric properties.BMC medicine · 2022Pooled it
- Dopamine, motor imagery, and proprioception: a neurochemical probe into the perception-imagery debate.Psychological research · 2025Trial
- Impact of meditation on brain age derived from multimodal neuroimaging in experts and older adults from a randomized trial.Scientific reports · 2025Trial
- A novel imagery-based retrieval-extinction training for intervention in nicotine addiction.BMC medicine · 2025Trial
- A guided single session intervention to reduce intrusive memories of work-related trauma: a randomised controlled trial with healthcare workers in the COVID-19 pandemic.BMC medicine · 2024Trial
- A causal link between mental imagery and affect-laden perception of climate change related risks.Scientific reports · 2023Trial
- Effects of a Novel, Transdiagnostic Ecological Momentary Intervention for Prevention, and Early Intervention of Severe Mental Disorder in Youth (EMIcompass): Findings From an Exploratory Randomized Controlled Trial.Schizophrenia bulletin · 2023Trial
- Imaginary pills and open-label placebos can reduce test anxiety by means of placebo mechanisms.Scientific reports · 2023Trial
- Mental imagery in adolescent PTSD patients after child abuse: a comparison with matched healthy controls.BMC psychiatry · 2022Trial
- Telephone-based behavioral activation with mental imagery for depression: A pilot randomized clinical trial in isolated older adults during the Covid-19 pandemic.International journal of geriatric psychiatry · 2022Trial
- Effects of task complexity or rate of motor imagery on motor learning in healthy young adults.Brain and behavior · 2021Trial
- Storytelling increases oxytocin and positive emotions and decreases cortisol and pain in hospitalized children.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2021Trial
- Reducing intrusive memories after trauma via a brief cognitive task intervention in the hospital emergency department: an exploratory pilot randomised controlled trial.Translational psychiatry · 2021Trial
- Imaginator: A Proof-of-Concept Feasibility Trial of a Brief Imagery-Based Psychological Intervention for Young People Who Self-Harm.Suicide & life-threatening behavior · 2020Trial
- Modality- and sequence-specific effects of guided imagery on stress and neuroendocrine markers in young adults: A pilot randomized crossover study.Comprehensive psychoneuroendocrinology · 2026Article
- Medial temporal default mode network selectively encodes autobiographical visual imagery.Science advances · 2026Article
- The effects of episodic simulation on the cognitive and emotional expectancies related to personal goals.Psychological research · 2026Article
- A longitudinal exploration of self-perception, mental images of the self, and depression in young people.JCPP advances · 2026Article
- Disentangling objects' contextual associations from perceptual and conceptual attributes using time-resolved neural decoding.Journal of vision · 2026Article
224 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Mental imagery research has weathered both disbelief of the phenomenon and inherent methodological limitations. Here we review recent behavioral, brain imaging, and clinical research that has reshaped our understanding of mental imagery. Research supports the claim that visual mental imagery is a depictive internal representation that functions like a weak form of perception. Brain imaging work has demonstrated that neural representations of mental and perceptual images resemble one another as early as the primary visual cortex (V1). Activity patterns in V1 encode mental images and perceptual images via a common set of low-level depictive visual features. Recent translational and clinical research reveals the pivotal role that imagery plays in many mental disorders and suggests how clinicians can utilize imagery in treatment.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.