Publication
Title
Unconscious mental imagery
Author
Abstract
Historically, mental imagery has been defined as an experiential state-as something necessarily conscious. But most behavioural or neuroimaging experiments on mental imagery-including the most famous ones-do not actually take the conscious experience of the subject into consideration. Further, recent research highlights that there are very few behavioural or neural differences between conscious and unconscious mental imagery. I argue that treating mental imagery as not necessarily conscious (as potentially unconscious) would bring much needed explanatory unification to mental imagery research. It would also help us to reassess some of the recent aphantasia findings inasmuch as at least some subjects with aphantasia would be best described as having unconscious mental imagery. This article is part of the theme issue 'Offline perception: voluntary and spontaneous perceptual experiences without matching external stimulation'.
Language
English
Source (journal)
Philosophical transactions : biological sciences. - London, 1990, currens
Publication
London : Royal soc , 2021
ISSN
0962-8436 [print]
1471-2970 [online]
DOI
10.1098/RSTB.2019.0689
Volume/pages
376 :1817 (2021) , p. 1-9
Article Reference
20190689
ISI
000599919400003
Pubmed ID
33308067
Medium
E-only publicatie
Full text (Publisher's DOI)
Full text (open access)
UAntwerpen
Faculty/Department
Research group
Project info
Seeing things you don't see: Unifying the philosophy, psychology and neuroscience of multimodal mental imagery (STYDS).
The diversity of unconscious mental processes.
Publication type
Subject
Affiliation
Publications with a UAntwerp address
External links
Web of Science
Record
Identifier
Creation 03.02.2021
Last edited 02.10.2024
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