PSYC 336 Lecture Notes - Lecture 11: Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation, Occipital Lobe

• School: University of San Diego
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSYC 336
• Professor: Appleton-Knapp

Document Summary

Many of the same structures are crucial for imagery are also used in vision. Vision relies on the occipital cortex, areas v1 and v2. When participants are visualizing a stimulus before their mind"s eye , activity levels are also high in the occipital cortex. The same brain areas are particularly active whenever participants are maintaining highly detailed images. The amount of brain tissue showing activation increases as participants imagine larger and larger objects. Certain areas in the brain are highly sensitive to motivation the same areas activated when asked to imagine movement patterns. Likewise for the perception of faces and imagining faces. Researchers have developed techniques for decoding patterns of brain activation in people who are holding visual images. Brain activity associated with viewing the picture is documented. Participants asked to create and maintain a visual image. Using fmri, brain activity is recorded again. Using analysis compares activation patterns while visualizing with the activation patterns while seeing.