An fMRI investigation on image generation in different sensory modalities: The influence of vividness

Belardinelli, Marta Olivetti; Palmiero, Massimiliano; Sestieri, Carlo; Nardo, Davide; Matteo, Rosalia Di; Londei, Alessandro; D’Ausilio, Alessandro; Ferretti, Andrea; Gratta, Cosimo Del; Romani, Gian Luca

doi:10.1016/j.actpsy.2009.06.009

Cited by 130 publications

(112 citation statements)

References 64 publications

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“…However, the SI modulation is foreshadowed by a change in activity pattern, detectable by using multivoxel pattern classification in the 4 s preceding the likely onset of the caress. The visually triggered modulation of touch showed trial-by-trial correlation with pleasantness ratings and was significant within SI but not in the insula or ACC, areas previously thought to mediate this effect (14,15,63), and it seems to be independent of the modulation in the OFC, as suggested by a lack of functional connectivity between OFC and SI in our experiment. By showing that SI, a region classically associated with the processing of sensory properties of touch, has activity correlated with pleasantness, our data suggest that sensory and affective properties of touch are processed by partially overlapping neural systems.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 43%

“…Activation in SI in the absence of touch has also been observed in highly empathic individuals that experience mirror-touch synesthesia (60,61). SI activation has also been observed in the absence of touch during hypnotic suggestion (19), while participants recognize visually presented shapes (57), while monkeys view patterns that have been associated with tactile stimuli (62), and while participants imagine being touched (63,64). Finally, SI activation patterns have also been shown to differ while observing other individuals haptically explore different objects (42) or be caressed (16).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 95%

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Primary somatosensory cortex discriminates affective significance in social touch

Gazzola¹,

Spezio

Etzel³

et al. 2012

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

283

224

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Another person's caress is one of the most powerful of all emotional social signals. How much the primary somatosensory cortices (SIs) participate in processing the pleasantness of such social touch remains unclear. Although ample empirical evidence supports the role of the insula in affective processing of touch, here we argue that SI might be more involved in affective processing than previously thought by showing that the response in SI to a sensual caress is modified by the perceived sex of the caresser. In a functional MRI study, we manipulated the perceived affective quality of a caress independently of the sensory properties at the skin: heterosexual males believed they were sensually caressed by either a man or woman, although the caress was in fact invariantly delivered by a female blind to condition type. Independent analyses showed that SI encoded, and was modulated by, the visual sex of the caress, and that this effect is unlikely to originate from the insula. This suggests that current models may underestimate the role played by SI in the affective processing of social touch.affective touch | sexual selection | gender | crossmodal perception | hot cognition

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 43%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 95%

Primary somatosensory cortex discriminates affective significance in social touch

Gazzola¹,

Spezio

Etzel³

et al. 2012

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

283

224

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…It might be that visual imagery produced semantic representations, or vice versa, which access visual information (including faces or words) stored in long-term memory (Kosslyn, 1994). The propositional theory is consistent with the report that mental manipulation of an object is harder than processing physical pictures of an identical object, presumably due to cognitive load from extensive brain areas that require more top-down projections (see Klemen & Chambers, 2012;Olivetti Belardinelli et al, 2009;Wimmer et al, 2016).…”

Section: Review Of the Literature Psychological Theories In Visual Imsupporting

confidence: 86%

“…According to this theory, to generate visual images, higher-level processing is required to recruit brain areas overlapping with the language circuitry (Kosslyn & Thomapson, 2003). Evidence was shown in several neuroimaging studies, indicating that semantic representations, or at least some verbal components, are implicated in the imagery process (Mazard et al, 2005;Olivetti Belardinelli et al, 2009). For example, Mazard et al (2005) found that imagery elicited significantly stronger activation in the left inferior frontal (important for verbal comprehension and production) and left inferior temporal gyrus (responsible for visual object recognition) than perceptual processes.…”

Section: Review Of the Literature Psychological Theories In Visual Immentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Among the limited data on the neuronal object generation and maintenance (e.g., D'Esposito et al, 1997; Kosslyn, 1994;Mazard et al, 2005;Olivetti Belardinelli et al, 2009), research from the brain lesion studies has generally supported the coexistence of two pathways for imagery processing. These are the parietal pathway (known as the dorsal pathway) for spatial representation (e.g., Driver & Mattingley, 1998) and the temporal pathway (knowns as the ventral pathway) for processing visual properties of objects, such as size, shape, color, etc., (see Anderson, 2010;Goodale, Milner, Jakobson, & Carey, 1991).…”

Section: Neuroscience Findings In the Mechanisms Of Imagerymentioning

confidence: 99%

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Using Neuroeducation as a Model to Evaluate the Effect of Imagery on Chinese Character Writing

Lam¹,

Arwood²

2017

SUET

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Using imagery as a strategy for language learning may be helpful to encode linguistic forms into conceptual networks for long-term memory. Based on Arwood's neuroeducation model of language learning, this research evaluated the effect of imagery in Chinese character writing by English-speaking adolescent students. After comparing imagery effects under three instructional conditions (i.e., English translation, pictorial presentation, and verbal-contextual interpretation), the results showed that the use of imagery predicted significantly better writing results in the immediate and one-week writing tests, but not in the four-week writing test. Cognitive analyses found that imagery was commonly used as a mediational strategy in the pictorial and verbal-contextual methods in the early learning phases. The pictorial method mainly elicited perceptual visual patterns which failed to support sustained memory. For a better character encoding and retrieval, images had to be generated associated with sufficient and relevant contextual information.

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The role of vividness of imagery in metaphor generation

Stephan

Shidlovski

Shanetzki

et al. 2022

Euro J Social Psych

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Pointing to novel links between mental representation and social communication, we examine the association between vividness of imagery and use of metaphors. In a study on individual differences and three experiments, we demonstrate that vivid imagery is linked to greater use of metaphors and that this relationship is bi-directional. We also show that this relationship is stronger in the context of negative valence. We demonstrate that vivid imagery results in greater generation of metaphors (in particular, for negative concepts). In examining the reverse direction of influence, we show that in the negative (rather than positive) context, use of metaphors results in greater perceptions of vividness. We suggest that vividness can be signified and produced by using metaphors that play an important role in meaning making and communication.

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An fMRI investigation on image generation in different sensory modalities: The influence of vividness

Cited by 130 publications

References 64 publications

Primary somatosensory cortex discriminates affective significance in social touch

Primary somatosensory cortex discriminates affective significance in social touch

Using Neuroeducation as a Model to Evaluate the Effect of Imagery on Chinese Character Writing

The role of vividness of imagery in metaphor generation

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