Title: Imagery Agnosia

Motivation and general info.
General problem: to what degree episodic memory recreates brain states achieved during the episode? How precisely are different aspects of experience recreated, what are individual differences?
In particular, how vividly and in which modalities can one imagine the details that recognition memory can distinguish?
Planning fMRI/EEG experiments in 2018 ... unfortunately we have not started serious research, my PhD student who initially took this topic has dropped after a few month. In the meantime Adam Zeman and his colleagues have published many relevant papers on aphantasia. More strange names are proposed for various forms of imagery deficits, but I am convinced that finally imagery agnosia will be recognized as a branch of neuropsychology and properly classified.

I have not written much on this topic so far.
Older papers are in Polish language; a few papers are linked below:

1. Duch W. (2021).
   Imagery agnosia and its phenomenology.
   ArXiv CS/Bio, PsyArXiv (12/2021), extended version of the Annals of Psychology paper (2022, in print).

2. Duch W. (2013). Amuzja Wyobrażeniowa (Imagery Amusia), book chapter,
   Neuroestetyka muzyki, red. P. Podlipniak i P. Przybysz. Wydawnictwo Poznańskiego Towarzystwa Przyjaciół Nauk 2013, str. 243-266.

3. Duch W. (2012). What can we know about ourselves and how do we know it?
   In: Ed. B. Buszewski, M. Jaskuła, The World Without Borders - Science Without Borders. Societas Humboldtiana Polonorum, 2012, pp. 181-208.
4. Duch W. (2011). Neurodynamics and the mind.
   Proc. of the International Joint Conference on Neural Networks, San Jose, CA, IEEE Press, pp. 3227--3234, 2011.
   Presented at the IJCNN 2011, San Jose, special session "What Neural Modeling Tells Us about Ourselves''.
5. Duch W. (2009). Imagery Agnosia: what goes on in my head?
   Coma and Consciousness, Clinical, Societal and Ethical Implications. Satellite Symposium of the 13th Annual Meeting of the Association for the Scientific Studies of Consciousness, Berlin, 4-5 June 2009, p. 46
6. Duch W. (2008). Consciousness, Imagery and Music.
   COST BM0605 Meeting, Consciousness: A transdisciplinary, integrated approach, Ghent, Belgium, Nov. 2008 (abstract), pp. 15-16.

Some talks are here;

1. Cognitive Science and Music (PPT, 12 MB).
   International Scientific Conference Cochlear Implants and Music, Warsaw 16.07.2015

2. Mózgi i umysły, czyli co o sobie wiemy
   XXV Wykład im. Aleksandra Jabłońskiego, IF UMK, 23.02.2012; powtórka w Instytucie Biologii Doświadczalnej im. M. Nenckiego PAN 22.11.2012

3. Imagery, Creativity, Brains and Talent. (PPT 12.1 MB),
   Hitachi Advanced Research Laboratory. Hatoyama-machi, Saitama, Japan, 14.07.2010

4. Imagery Agnosia: what goes on in my head? (PPT 2.2 MB),
   Body, perception and awareness. Motor and multimodal perspectives. Torun, Poland, Nov. 23-25, 2009

5. Consciousness, Imagery and Music (PPT 2.8 MB), Abstract (PDF 0.1 MB).
   Consciousness: A Transdisciplinary, Integrated Approach, COST Action BM0605 workshop. Ghent, Nov 20-21, 2008

Interesting books:

Otis, L. (2015). Rethinking Thought: Inside the Minds of Creative Scientists and Artists. Oxford University Press. Link here.
This book demonstrates how greatly the lived experience of thought varies from one person to another, especially with respect to visual mental images and verbal language. It examines differences in the conscious feel of thought, including planning, problem solving, reflecting, remembering, and devising new ideas. Presenting the results of interview-based research, it offers portraits of 29 creative minds.
The book creates a dialogue between the insights of innovative thinkers and recent findings in neuroscience, cognitive science, linguistics, and philosophy. It offers a forum in which qualitative and quantitative research results engage each other as equal partners, each encouraging critical re-evaluations of the other. One striking finding that has emerged from this dialogue is that many creative people enter fields requiring skills that don’t come naturally. Instead, they choose professions that demand the hardest work and the greatest mental growth. Both laboratory studies and common experiences indicate how often people presume that others think as they do—sometimes with disastrous results.

Other relevant papers:

1. Zeman, A., MacKisack, M., Onians, J. (2018). The Eye’s mind – Visual imagination, neuroscience and the humanities. Cortex, 105, 1–3. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cortex.2018.06.012, special issue of Cortex, may articles worth reading
2. Winlove, C. I. P., Milton, F., Ranson, J., Fulford, J., MacKisack, M., Macpherson, F., & Zeman, A. (2018). The neural correlates of visual imagery: A co-ordinate-based meta-analysis. Cortex, 105, 4–25. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cortex.2017.12.014
3. Watkins, N. W. (2018). (A)phantasia and severely deficient autobiographical memory: Scientific and personal perspectives. Cortex, 105, 41–52. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cortex.2017.10.010
4. Nanay, B. (2018). Multimodal mental imagery. Cortex, 105, 125–134. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cortex.2017.07.006
5. Keogh, R., Pearson, J. (2018). The blind mind: No sensory visual imagery in aphantasia. Cortex, 105, 53–60. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cortex.2017.10.012
6. Jacobs, C., Schwarzkopf, D. S., Silvanto, J. (2018). Visual working memory performance in aphantasia. Cortex, 105, 61–73. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cortex.2017.10.014
7. Fulford, J., Milton, F., Salas, D., Smith, A., Simler, A., Winlove, C., & Zeman, A. (2018). The neural correlates of visual imagery vividness – An fMRI study and literature review. Cortex, 105, 26–40. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cortex.2017.09.014
8. Bill Faw, Conflicting Intuitions May Be Based On Differing Abilities: Evidence from Mental Imaging Research. Journal of Consciousness Studies, Volume 16, Number 4, 2009, pp. 45-68(24)
9. Winlove, C. I. P., Milton, F., Ranson, J., Fulford, J., MacKisack, M., Macpherson, F., & Zeman, A. (2018). The neural correlates of visual imagery: A co-ordinate-based meta-analysis. Cortex.
10. Borst, D., W, A., de Gelder, B. (2017). fMRI-based Multivariate Pattern Analyses Reveal Imagery Modality and Imagery Content Specific Representations in Primary Somatosensory, Motor and Auditory Cortices. Cerebral Cortex, 27(8), 3994–4009. https://doi.org/10.1093/cercor/bhw211
11. Fulford, J., Milton, F., Salas, D., Smith, A., Simler, A., Winlove, C., & Zeman, A. (2017). The neural correlates of visual imagery vividness – An fMRI study and literature review. Cortex.
12. Reflections on aphantasia. Cortex, Volume 74, January 2016, Pages 336-337 Adam Zeman, Michaela Dewar, Sergio Della Sala
13. Refusing to imagine? On the possibility of psychogenic aphantasia. A commentary on Zeman et al. (2015) Cortex, Volume 74, January 2016, Pages 334-335 Stefania de Vito, Paolo Bartolomeo
14. Lives without imagery – Congenital aphantasia Cortex, Volume 73, December 2015, Pages 378-380 Adam Zeman, Michaela Dewar, Sergio Della Sala
15. Blind in the mind. New Scientist, Volume 230, Issue 3070, 23 April 2016, Pages 34-37 Dustin Grinnell
16. Decoding the direction of imagined visual motion using 7 T ultra-high field fMRI. NeuroImage, Volume 125, 15 January 2016, Pages 61-73 Thomas C. Emmerling, Jan Zimmermann, Bettina Sorger, Martin A. Frost, Rainer Goebel
17. Papers on earworms, especially L.A. Liikkanen on Involuntary Musical Imagery (INMI), or Lia Kvavilashvili on mind-pops.
18. Papers on imagination of movement, ex: May, J., Calvo-Merino, B., deLahunta, S., McGregor, W., Cusack, R., Owen, A. M., … Barnard, P. (2011). Points in Mental Space: an Interdisciplinary Study of Imagery in Movement Creation. Dance Research, 29 (supplement), 404–432.
    https://doi.org/10.3366/drs.2011.0026
19. Roger E Beaty, Creative Connectomes FMRI project.

Links to other Duch-Lab projects, many talks and to other papers on various subjects.