New behavioral and physiological indices for "closer" which weakens negative effects of visual input when generating mental images

2015 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 26730070
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Cognitive science
• Research Institution: Hokkaido University
• Principal Investigator: Hirose Kenji 北海道大学, 文学研究科, 専門研究員 (30706768)
• Project Period (FY): 2014-04-01 – 2016-03-31
• Keywords: 心的イメージ / 鮮明度 / closer

Outline of Final Research Achievements

The previous study suggested that there was a function called “closer” which was supposed to weaken negative effects of visual input when one generated mental images. The goal of the present study was to establish the “closer”. In this study, brain activity was recorded when participants were generating mental images while observing a stimulus which had distracting effects for mental imagery. Results showed that activity within a part of low-level visual cortex lowered. The results suggests that the “closer” suppresses the vision to protect the generating process of mental images from being exposed to distracting effects of incoming visual input.

Free Research Field

認知心理学