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Between-subject variability in the influence of mental imagery on conscious perception

Mental imagery and visual perception rely on similar neural mechanisms, but the function of this overlap remains unclear. One idea is that imagery can influence perception. Previous research has shown that imagining a stimulus prior to binocular presentation of rivalling stimuli increases the chance...

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Autores principales: Dijkstra, N., Hinne, M., Bosch, S. E., van Gerven, M. A. J.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Nature Publishing Group UK 2019
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6821778/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31666592
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-52072-1
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author Dijkstra, N.
Hinne, M.
Bosch, S. E.
van Gerven, M. A. J.
author_facet Dijkstra, N.
Hinne, M.
Bosch, S. E.
van Gerven, M. A. J.
author_sort Dijkstra, N.
collection PubMed
description Mental imagery and visual perception rely on similar neural mechanisms, but the function of this overlap remains unclear. One idea is that imagery can influence perception. Previous research has shown that imagining a stimulus prior to binocular presentation of rivalling stimuli increases the chance of perceiving the imagined stimulus. In this study we investigated how this effect interacts with bottom-up sensory input by comparing psychometric response curves for congruent and incongruent imagery in humans. A Bayesian hierarchical model was used, allowing us to simultaneously study group-level effects as well as effects for individual participants. We found strong effects of both imagery as well as its interaction with sensory evidence within individual participants. However, the direction of these effects were highly variable between individuals, leading to weak effects at the group level. This highlights the heterogeneity of conscious perception and emphasizes the need for individualized investigation of such complex cognitive processes.
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spelling pubmed-68217782019-11-05 Between-subject variability in the influence of mental imagery on conscious perception Dijkstra, N. Hinne, M. Bosch, S. E. van Gerven, M. A. J. Sci Rep Article Mental imagery and visual perception rely on similar neural mechanisms, but the function of this overlap remains unclear. One idea is that imagery can influence perception. Previous research has shown that imagining a stimulus prior to binocular presentation of rivalling stimuli increases the chance of perceiving the imagined stimulus. In this study we investigated how this effect interacts with bottom-up sensory input by comparing psychometric response curves for congruent and incongruent imagery in humans. A Bayesian hierarchical model was used, allowing us to simultaneously study group-level effects as well as effects for individual participants. We found strong effects of both imagery as well as its interaction with sensory evidence within individual participants. However, the direction of these effects were highly variable between individuals, leading to weak effects at the group level. This highlights the heterogeneity of conscious perception and emphasizes the need for individualized investigation of such complex cognitive processes. Nature Publishing Group UK 2019-10-30 /pmc/articles/PMC6821778/ /pubmed/31666592 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-52072-1 Text en © The Author(s) 2019 Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
spellingShingle Article
Dijkstra, N.
Hinne, M.
Bosch, S. E.
van Gerven, M. A. J.
Between-subject variability in the influence of mental imagery on conscious perception
title Between-subject variability in the influence of mental imagery on conscious perception
title_full Between-subject variability in the influence of mental imagery on conscious perception
title_fullStr Between-subject variability in the influence of mental imagery on conscious perception
title_full_unstemmed Between-subject variability in the influence of mental imagery on conscious perception
title_short Between-subject variability in the influence of mental imagery on conscious perception
title_sort between-subject variability in the influence of mental imagery on conscious perception
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6821778/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31666592
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-52072-1
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