TY - JOUR
T1 - The role of area 17 in visual imagery
T2 - Convergent evidence from PET and rTMS
AU - Kosslyn, S. M.
AU - Pascual-Leone, A.
AU - Felician, O.
AU - Camposano, S.
AU - Keenan, J. P.
AU - Thompson, W. L.
AU - Ganis, G.
AU - Sukel, K. E.
AU - Alpert, N. M.
PY - 1999/4/2
Y1 - 1999/4/2
N2 - Visual imagery is used in a wide range of mental activities, ranging from memory to reasoning, and also plays a role in perception proper. The contribution of early visual cortex, specificaLLy Area 17, to visual mental imagery was examined by the use of two convergent techniques. In one, subjects dosed their eyes during positron emission tomography (PET) while they visualized and corn pared properties (for example, relative length) of sets of stripes. The results showed that when people perform this task, Area 17 is activated. In the other, repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) was applied to medial occipital cortex before presentation of the same task. Performance was impaired after rTMS compared with a sham control condition; similar results were obtained when the subjects performed the task by actually looking at the stimuli. In sum, the PET results showed that when patterns of stripes are visualized, Area 17 is activated, and the rTMS results showed that such activation underlies information processing.
AB - Visual imagery is used in a wide range of mental activities, ranging from memory to reasoning, and also plays a role in perception proper. The contribution of early visual cortex, specificaLLy Area 17, to visual mental imagery was examined by the use of two convergent techniques. In one, subjects dosed their eyes during positron emission tomography (PET) while they visualized and corn pared properties (for example, relative length) of sets of stripes. The results showed that when people perform this task, Area 17 is activated. In the other, repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) was applied to medial occipital cortex before presentation of the same task. Performance was impaired after rTMS compared with a sham control condition; similar results were obtained when the subjects performed the task by actually looking at the stimuli. In sum, the PET results showed that when patterns of stripes are visualized, Area 17 is activated, and the rTMS results showed that such activation underlies information processing.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=0033515885&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1126/science.284.5411.167
DO - 10.1126/science.284.5411.167
M3 - Article
C2 - 10102821
AN - SCOPUS:0033515885
SN - 0036-8075
VL - 284
SP - 167
EP - 170
JO - Science
JF - Science
IS - 5411
ER -