Neurodiversity in mental simulation: conceptual but not visual imagery priming modulates perception across the imagery vividness spectrum
Abstract Mental simulation—the ability to internally model sensory, conceptual, or future events—may include mental imagery as a component, with considerable individual variability in its vividness and dependence on sensory detail. While self-reports have been widely used to assess imagery, they are...
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Nature Portfolio
2025-07-01
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| Series: | Scientific Reports |
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| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-05100-2 |
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| author | Ágnes Welker Orsolya Pető-Plaszkó Luca Verebélyi Ferenc Gombos István Winkler Ilona Kovács |
| author_facet | Ágnes Welker Orsolya Pető-Plaszkó Luca Verebélyi Ferenc Gombos István Winkler Ilona Kovács |
| author_sort | Ágnes Welker |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Abstract Mental simulation—the ability to internally model sensory, conceptual, or future events—may include mental imagery as a component, with considerable individual variability in its vividness and dependence on sensory detail. While self-reports have been widely used to assess imagery, they are subjective and prone to bias. Among more objective methods, imagery priming in binocular rivalry has been employed to investigate the influence of mental imagery on perception, but findings have been ambiguous. Here, we introduce a no-report version of the task, using eye-tracking-based optokinetic nystagmus assessment to provide a more reliable measure of perceptual shifts. In addition to visual imagery priming, we introduce conceptual priming, which does not rely on sensory imagery but engages abstract representations. In visual imagery priming, perceptual modulation correlated with self-reported vividness, and participants with low vividness did not show modulatory effects. However, in conceptual priming, effects were observed across the entire vividness spectrum, demonstrating that both concrete sensory-based and abstract conceptual representations can influence perception. These findings challenge purely sensory accounts of mental imagery. We propose avoiding deficit-based terms such as “aphantasia” and advocate for a neuroaffirmative perspective on mental simulation diversity. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-e7609712dbcc495cbc9cffdf7966e8d0 |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 2045-2322 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-07-01 |
| publisher | Nature Portfolio |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Scientific Reports |
| spelling | doaj-art-e7609712dbcc495cbc9cffdf7966e8d02025-08-20T03:37:27ZengNature PortfolioScientific Reports2045-23222025-07-0115111210.1038/s41598-025-05100-2Neurodiversity in mental simulation: conceptual but not visual imagery priming modulates perception across the imagery vividness spectrumÁgnes Welker0Orsolya Pető-Plaszkó1Luca Verebélyi2Ferenc Gombos3István Winkler4Ilona Kovács5HUN-REN Research Centre for Natural SciencesHUN-REN Research Centre for Natural SciencesHUN-REN Research Centre for Natural SciencesPázmány Péter Catholic UniversityHUN-REN Research Centre for Natural SciencesHUN-REN-ELTE-PPKE Adolescent Development Research GroupAbstract Mental simulation—the ability to internally model sensory, conceptual, or future events—may include mental imagery as a component, with considerable individual variability in its vividness and dependence on sensory detail. While self-reports have been widely used to assess imagery, they are subjective and prone to bias. Among more objective methods, imagery priming in binocular rivalry has been employed to investigate the influence of mental imagery on perception, but findings have been ambiguous. Here, we introduce a no-report version of the task, using eye-tracking-based optokinetic nystagmus assessment to provide a more reliable measure of perceptual shifts. In addition to visual imagery priming, we introduce conceptual priming, which does not rely on sensory imagery but engages abstract representations. In visual imagery priming, perceptual modulation correlated with self-reported vividness, and participants with low vividness did not show modulatory effects. However, in conceptual priming, effects were observed across the entire vividness spectrum, demonstrating that both concrete sensory-based and abstract conceptual representations can influence perception. These findings challenge purely sensory accounts of mental imagery. We propose avoiding deficit-based terms such as “aphantasia” and advocate for a neuroaffirmative perspective on mental simulation diversity.https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-05100-2NeurodiversityMental simulationVisual imageryBinocular rivalryPrimingNeuroaffirmative |
| spellingShingle | Ágnes Welker Orsolya Pető-Plaszkó Luca Verebélyi Ferenc Gombos István Winkler Ilona Kovács Neurodiversity in mental simulation: conceptual but not visual imagery priming modulates perception across the imagery vividness spectrum Scientific Reports Neurodiversity Mental simulation Visual imagery Binocular rivalry Priming Neuroaffirmative |
| title | Neurodiversity in mental simulation: conceptual but not visual imagery priming modulates perception across the imagery vividness spectrum |
| title_full | Neurodiversity in mental simulation: conceptual but not visual imagery priming modulates perception across the imagery vividness spectrum |
| title_fullStr | Neurodiversity in mental simulation: conceptual but not visual imagery priming modulates perception across the imagery vividness spectrum |
| title_full_unstemmed | Neurodiversity in mental simulation: conceptual but not visual imagery priming modulates perception across the imagery vividness spectrum |
| title_short | Neurodiversity in mental simulation: conceptual but not visual imagery priming modulates perception across the imagery vividness spectrum |
| title_sort | neurodiversity in mental simulation conceptual but not visual imagery priming modulates perception across the imagery vividness spectrum |
| topic | Neurodiversity Mental simulation Visual imagery Binocular rivalry Priming Neuroaffirmative |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-05100-2 |
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