ReviewVision (Basel, Switzerland)2024
Uncovering the Role of the Early Visual Cortex in Visual Mental Imagery.
Review in Vision (Basel, Switzerland), 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 9 papers.
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.
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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.
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Who cites it
9 citing papers in PubMed.
- Windows to the goal: Pupillary working memory signatures prospectively adapt to task demands.iScience · 2026Article
- Neuroradiological Insights into Visual Mental Imagery: Structural and Functional Imaging of Ventral and Dorsal Streams.Brain sciences · 2026Review
- Dynamic context-based updating of object representations in the visual cortex.Science advances · 2026Article
- Gaussian Connectivity-Driven EEG Imaging for Deep Learning-Based Motor Imagery Classification.Sensors (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Stronger Short-Term Memory, Larger Hippocampi and Area V1 in People with High VVIQ Scores.Vision (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Brain Functional Connectivity During First- and Third-Person Visual Imagery.Vision (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Distinct distributed brain networks dissociate self-generated mental states.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- Shaping the Space: A Role for the Hippocampus in Mental Imagery Formation.Vision (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Review
- A Systematic Review of Aphantasia: Concept, Measurement, Neural Basis, and Theory Development.Vision (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
1 author.
Funding
Abstract
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.
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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.