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mental imagery

This shows a person listening to music with the outline of other people in the background.

·August 30, 2025·6 min read

Music Sparks Social Imagination and Eases Loneliness

A large-scale study with 600 participants shows that music can genuinely evoke feelings of companionship by sparking social imagination. When participants listened to folk music, they imagined vivid social scenes such as being with friends, even when lyrics were removed.

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·April 29, 2023·5 min read

Focusing on Mental Imagery Helps Teens Break Free From Negativity

Negative rumination can be improved by using mental imagery for teens, a new study reports. Mental imagery appears to improve negative affect and helps regulate the nervous system, the researchers reported. While researchers were unable to answer why mental imagery was so effective, they hypothesised imagery is more immersive and requires greater effort, creating a greater emotional response and thus a larger distraction.

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·June 13, 2022·5 min read

A Glimpse Into the Dog’s Mind: A New Study Reveals How Dogs Think of Their Toys

Dogs have multi-modal mental imagery of items and objects that are familiar to them. When a dog thinks about an object, they imagine the object's different sensory features.

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·November 12, 2021·4 min read

Psychologists Reveal How We Truly See Ourselves by Generating ‘Mental Selfies’

Researchers have devised a method to access people's mental images of themselves and compare this mental image against a realistic image of the person. The study revealed people's mental images of themselves are not necessarily true to life, but are influenced by the kind of personality the individual believes themselves to have.

This is a drawing of a head with a spider crawling on it

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·October 29, 2021·5 min read

Not Spooked by Halloween Ghost Stories? You May Have Aphantasia

Do you experience difficulties conjuring up visual images in your mind while listening to spooky stories? You may have aphantasia, researchers report.

This shows models of halloween skeletons lit up with neon lights

Featured Neuroscience Open Neuroscience Articles Psychology

·March 10, 2021·6 min read

I Ain’t Afraid of No Ghosts: People With Mind-Blindness Not So Easily Spooked

Horror writers may have a hard time attracting those with aphantasia to read their spooky stories. A new study reveals those with aphantasia, a disorder marked by an inability to visualize mental imagery, have a hard time getting spooked by creepy stories. Findings suggest mental imagery may have a closer link to emotional processing and expression than previously believed.

This shows a woman surrounded by various objects like clocks and smoke

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·May 6, 2020·6 min read

How strong is your mental imagery? It might depend on how ‘excitable’ your neurons are

The strength of a person's mental imagery is associated with excitability in the prefrontal cortex and visual cortex. Highly excitable neurons in the visual cortex may reduce a person's ability to imagine mental images. The findings shed light on how aphantasia, a condition where a person can not imaging mental images, may occur.