Spatial attention enhances the processing of specific regions within a visual scene as people view their surroundings, much like a spotlight. Do people orient spatial attention the same way when processing mental images from memory? Anthony Clément and Catherine Tallon-Baudry, from École normale supérieure, explored whether neural mechanisms of spatial attention differ when discriminating between locations in mental images versus visuals on a screen.
In their JNeurosci paper, the researchers present an experimental task they developed that enabled them to record brain activity while human participants performed spatial discrimination tasks. One task triggered the “mind’s eye” by prompting participants to recall the map of France from memory and focus their attention on the right or left of their mental maps. At the end of each trial, two city names appeared on a screen. Participants had to imagine where the cities were located on the map and choose which one they believed was closer to Paris. People were able to orient spatial attention when retrieving images from memory, but the brain mechanisms were different compared to mechanisms for discriminating between visuals on a screen. While visual perception relied on posterior brain regions, mental imagery relied more on frontal areas. Thus, there may be distinct mechanisms for spatial attention depending on whether people are imagining or seeing visuals.
Says Clément, “Our findings suggest that when we explore a mental image in our ‘mind’s eye,’ we don’t simply reuse the brain mechanisms we rely on when looking at the world. This distinction may help us refine how we think about internal experiences like mental imagery, memory, thoughts, and even consciousness.”
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About JNeurosci
JNeurosci was launched in 1981 as a means to communicate the findings of the highest quality neuroscience research to the growing field. Today, the journal remains committed to publishing cutting-edge neuroscience that will have an immediate and lasting scientific impact, while responding to authors' changing publishing needs, representing breadth of the field and diversity in authorship.
About The Society for Neuroscience
The Society for Neuroscience is the world's largest organization of scientists and physicians devoted to understanding the brain and nervous system. The nonprofit organization, founded in 1969, now has nearly 35,000 members in more than 95 countries.
JNeurosci
10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0691-25.2025
People
Mental Images from Long-Term Memory Differ from Perception: Evidence for Distinct Spatial Formats and Distinct Mechanisms of Spatial Attention Orientation
20-Oct-2025
The authors declare no competing financial interests.