Imaging tactile imagery: Changes in brain connectivity support perceptual grounding of mental images in primary sensory cortices

Schmidt, Timo Torsten; Ostwald, Dirk; Blankenburg, Felix

doi:10.1016/j.neuroimage.2014.05.014

Cited by 76 publications

(58 citation statements)

References 69 publications

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“…Analogous findings have been reported for several other modalities, including audition (e.g., Zatorre et al, 1996), touch (Schmidt et al, 2014), olfaction (e.g., Bensafi et al, 2003), and motoric behaviour (e.g., Decety et al, 1989;Parsons 1994). Our findings extend this result to proprioceptive imagery, showing that judgments about both actual and imagined limb positions rely on a common representation of body size and shape.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 89%

“…Imagery has been investigated most thoroughly in the case of vision, for example in the seminal studies of Kosslyn and colleagues (Kosslyn, Ganis, & Thompson, 2001;Kosslyn et al, 2006). Numerous studies have also described imagery in other modalities, including audition (e.g., Zatorre et al, 1996), touch (e.g., Schmidt, Ostwald, & Blankenburg, 2014), gustation (e.g., Kobayashi et al, 2004), olfaction (e.g., Bensafi et al, 2003), vestibular sensations (e.g., zu Eulenburg, Müller-Forell, & Dieterich, 2013), and action (e.g., Decety et al, 1994;Parsons, 1987). A general finding across modalities is that imagery relies on mental and neural representations subserving perception and action, functioning in effect as a "weak form of perception" (Pearson, Naselaris, Homles, & Kosslyn, 2015, p. 590).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Projecting the self outside the body: Body representations underlying proprioceptive imagery

Ganea

Longo

2017

Cognition

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Recent research has shown that proprioception relies on distorted representations of body size and shape. By asking participants to localise multiple landmarks on their occluded hand, perceptual maps of hand size and shape can be constructed and compared to actual hand structure. These maps are different from the actual size and shape of the occluded hand, revealing underestimation of finger length and overestimation of hand width. Here we tested whether the same distorted body model underlies proprioceptive imagery (i.e. imagining the hand at a specific location, and in a different posture than it actually is). In Experiment 1, participants placed their left hand under an occluding board (real condition) or imagined their left hand under the board (imagined condition). Highly similar distortions were found in both conditions. Furthermore, results across the two conditions were strongly correlated. In Experiment 2, participants completed the real condition and two imagined conditions. In the imagined-fist condition, participants held their left hand in a fist, in their lap, while in the imagined-flat condition, participants held their left hand flat, with palm down, in their lap. In both imagined conditions, participants were asked to imagine their left hand lying flat, with palm down, under the occluding board. A similar pattern of distortions was found in all three conditions. These results suggest that both proprioception and proprioceptive imagery reply on a common stored model of the body's metric properties.The Body and Proprioceptive Imagery 3

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 89%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Projecting the self outside the body: Body representations underlying proprioceptive imagery

Ganea

Longo

2017

Cognition

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“…On the other hand, sensory imagery has been shown by recent studies applying functional MRI to be perceptually grounded, i.e. the cortical representation of imagined sensations overlap with those that are actually involved in processing external sensory stimuli, like the primary somatosensory and insular cortices [ 57 , 58 ].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Placebo-Induced Somatic Sensations: A Multi-Modal Study of Three Different Placebo Interventions

et al. 2015

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Somatic sensations induced by placebos are a frequent phenomenon whose etiology and clinical relevance remains unknown. In this study, we have evaluated the quantitative, qualitative, spatial, and temporal characteristics of placebo-induced somatic sensations in response to three different placebo interventions: (1) placebo irritant solution, (2) placebo laser stimulation, and (3) imagined laser stimulation. The quality and intensity of evoked sensations were assessed using the McGill pain questionnaire and visual analogue scales (VAS), while subjects’ sensation drawings processed by a geographic information system (GIS) were used to measure their spatial characteristics. We found that all three interventions are capable of producing robust sensations most frequently described as “tingling” and “warm” that can reach consider-able spatial extent (≤ 205mm²) and intensity (≤ 80/100 VAS). Sensations from placebo stimulation were often referred to areas remote from the stimulation site and exhibit considerable similarity with referred pain. Interestingly, there was considerable similarity of qualitative features as well as spatial patterns across subjects and placebos. However, placebo laser stimulation elicited significantly stronger and more widespread sensations than placebo irritant solution. Finally, novelty seeking, a character trait assessed by the Temperament and Character Inventory and associated with basal dopaminergic activity, was less pronounced in subjects susceptible to report placebo-induced sensations. Our study has shown that placebo-induced sensations are frequent and can reach considerable intensity and extent. As multiple somatosensory subsystems are involved despite the lack of peripheral stimulus, we propose a central etiology for this phenomenon.

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“…That is, the two cognitive activities share the same neurophysiological bases, and imagery is an actual physical simulation of perceptual and motor experience [7][8][9] . Evidence of shared mechanisms has been provided mainly by neuroimaging studies which have shown partially similar brain activations during action or perception of all sensory modalities and the correspondent mental images 2,3,[10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20] . Indeed, spatial overlap between activations provides insights into which regions perform similar roles during mental images and perception.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Topology highlights mesoscopic functional equivalence between imagery and perception

Ibáñez‐Marcelo

Campioni

Phinyomark

et al. 2018

Preprint

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The functional equivalence between mental images and perception or motion has been proposed on the basis of neuroimaging evidence of large spatially overlapping activations between real and imagined sensori-motor conditions. However, similar local activation patterns do not imply the same mesoscopic integration of brain regions active during imagery and perception or action. Here we present the first EEG evidence of topological equivalence between functional network organization at intermediate and global scales during tasks. We show that the degree of functional equivalence varies in the population and is associated with different magnitudes in the restructuring of the functional connectivity between imagery and real tasks. In particular, changes observed during imagery with respect to basal conditions account for the cognitive effort experienced during imagery, and subjects characterized by stronger functional equivalence exhibit smaller topological deviations in the imagination tasks performed after real tasks, thus showing learning effects. Altogether, our findings point to different sensori-cognitive information processing in the subjects showing different functional equivalence. We anticipate our results to be a starting point for a novel dynamical description of functional equivalence, which will be relevant for socio-cognitive theories of embodiment and cognitive formulations of how different selves emerge from neurophysiological assets.

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Imaging tactile imagery: Changes in brain connectivity support perceptual grounding of mental images in primary sensory cortices

Cited by 76 publications

References 69 publications

Projecting the self outside the body: Body representations underlying proprioceptive imagery

Projecting the self outside the body: Body representations underlying proprioceptive imagery

Placebo-Induced Somatic Sensations: A Multi-Modal Study of Three Different Placebo Interventions

Topology highlights mesoscopic functional equivalence between imagery and perception

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