Opinion letter critiques the mental imagery debate, highlighting aphantasia and proposing dual-process accounts.
In this opinion letter, I critically examine the longstanding debate regarding the nature of mental imagery—specifically the tension between depictive (Kosslyn, 1980) and propositional (Pylyshyn, 1973) theories. Based on recent neuroimaging studies in individuals with aphantasia (alteration of mental imagery), I propose to reopen the imagery debate. I also suggest alternatives that support for a single- or a dual-process account of mental representation in the human brain.
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Florent Lebon (2025) studied this question.
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