ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the representations used in imagery, and addresses the question of whether they are some of the same representations used in perception. It focuses on the generation of mental images from memory, and addresses questions of the lateralization and functional architecture of this process. Many neuropsychological studies have found evidence of left hemisphere involvement in image generation, although in most cases these studies were not undertaken with this hypothesis in mind. A glance at the references cited confirms that much of our current understanding of mental imagery and the brain is only a few years old. This is perhaps not surprising, given the relative recency with which mental imagery joined language and verbal memory as bona fide subjects of scientific study in cognitive psychology, and the hysteresis which seems to operate between developments in cognitive psychology and developments in cognitive neuropsychology.
