VISUAL-IMAGERY AND VISUAL REPRESENTATION

Among many controversies in visual neuroscience is whether visual imag ery of objects, scenes and living beings is based upon contributions o i the early visual areas or depends on hierarchical higher visual area s only and whether the cortical areas subserving visual imagery are id entical to those underlying visual perception. These questions are imp ortant for furthering our understanding of vision, since areas active in visual imagery might tell us how the visual cortex represents objec ts, scenes and living beings. Here, P. E. Roland and B. Gulyas present their hypothesis, based on experimental evidence in man and primates that the visual areas subserving visual imagery are parieto-occipital and temporo-occipital visual association areas, and that these areas f orm only a subset of the visual areas engaged in perception. This hypo thesis is consistent with the view that objects, scenes and living bei ngs are represented stored and re-evoked outside the domain of the pri mary visual cortex and its immediate neighbours.