Published June 15, 2026 | Version 4

Mental Images and the Conscious Modulation of Experience

  • 1. Independent Researcher

Description

This article proposes that subjective experience and its underlying neural states can be shaped and modulated through mental images. Integrating evidence from neuroscience, philosophy of mind, and informational approaches to cognition and consciousness, it draws on findings concerning the functional overlap between perception and mental imagery, imagery-related plasticity, and the role of intentional processes in memory modulation. On this basis, mental images are interpreted not as mere byproducts of cognition, but as dynamic informational structures through which mind, body, and world interact. From this integration emerges the Intentional Imaginative Modulation Model (IIMM), proposed as a theoretical framework that describes how consciousness, through the modulation of mental images, contributes to the reorganization of neural patterns and the structuring of subjective experience.

 

Files

Nogueira_2026_Mental_Images_and_Conscious_Modulation_v4.pdf

Files (1.5 MB)

Additional details

Related works

Is original form of
Preprint: 10.5281/zenodo.20598763 (DOI)

Dates

Issued
2026-06-04

References

  • Aristotle. (1984). De anima. In J. Barnes (Ed.), The complete works of Aristotle (Vol. 1, pp. 641–692). Princeton University Press. (Book III, Chapter 3, 427b).
  • Bachelard, G. (1983). Water and dreams: An essay on the imagination of matter (E. R. Farrell, Trans.). Dallas Institute of Humanities and Culture. (Original work published 1942).
  • Bachelard, G. (1994). The poetics of space (M. Jolas, Trans.). Beacon Press. (Original work published 1957).
  • Barsade, S. G. (2002). The ripple effect: Emotional contagion and its influence on group behavior. Administrative Science Quarterly, 47(4), 644–675. https://doi.org/10.2307/3094912
  • Chartrand, T. L., & Bargh, J. A. (1999). The chameleon effect: The perception–behavior link and social interaction. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 76(6), 893–910. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.76.6.893
  • Damasio, A. R. (1994). Descartes' error: Emotion, reason, and the human brain. Putnam.
  • Damasio, A. (2010). Self comes to mind: Constructing the conscious brain. Pantheon Books.
  • Decety, J., & Jackson, P. L. (2004). The functional architecture of human empathy. Behavioral and Cognitive Neuroscience Reviews, 3(2), 71–100. https://doi.org/10.1177/1534582304267187
  • Diekelmann, S., & Born, J. (2010). The memory function of sleep. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 11(2), 114–126. https://doi.org/10.1038/nrn2762
  • Floridi, L. (2011). The philosophy of information. Oxford University Press.
  • Friston, K. (2010). The free-energy principle: A unified brain theory? Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 11(2), 127–138. https://doi.org/10.1038/nrn2787
  • Gallese, V. (2001). The "shared manifold" hypothesis: From mirror neurons to empathy. Journal of Consciousness Studies, 8(5–7), 33–50.
  • Gallese, V., Keysers, C., & Rizzolatti, G. (2004). A unifying view of the basis of social cognition. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 8(9), 396–403. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2004.07.002
  • Gallese, V. (2009). Mirror neurons, embodied simulation, and the neural basis of social identification. Psychoanalytic Dialogues, 19(5), 519–536. https://doi.org/10.1080/10481880903231910
  • Goswami, A. (1993). The self-aware universe: How consciousness creates the material world. G. P. Putnam's Sons.
  • Hebb, D. O. (1949). The organization of behavior: A neuropsychological theory. Wiley.
  • Hume, D. (2000). An enquiry concerning human understanding (T. L. Beauchamp, Ed.). Oxford University Press. (Original work published 1748)
  • Hume, D. (2007). A treatise of human nature (D. F. Norton & M. J. Norton, Eds.). Oxford University Press. (Original work published 1739–1740)
  • Iacoboni, M. (2009). Mirroring people: The new science of how we connect with others. Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
  • Jeannerod, M. (2001). Neural simulation of action: A unifying mechanism for motor cognition. NeuroImage, 14(1), S103–S109. https://doi.org/10.1006/nimg.2001.0832
  • Jeannerod, M. (2006). Motor cognition: What actions tell the self. Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198569657.001.0001
  • Keysers, C., & Gazzola, V. (2009). Expanding the mirror: Vicarious activity for actions, emotions, and sensations. Current Opinion in Neurobiology, 19(6), 666–671. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.conb.2009.10.006
  • Kilner, J. M., Friston, K. J., & Frith, C. D. (2007). Predictive coding: An account of the mirror neuron system. Cognitive Processing, 8(3), 159–166. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10339-007-0170-2
  • Kosslyn, S. M., Ganis, G., & Thompson, W. L. (2001). Neural foundations of imagery. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 2(9), 635–642. https://doi.org/10.1038/35090055
  • Lamme, V. A. F., & Roelfsema, P. R. (2000). The distinct modes of vision offered by feedforward and recurrent processing. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 4(1), 11–18. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0166-2236(00)01657-X
  • Lang, P. J. (1977). Imagery in therapy: An information processing analysis of fear. Behavior Therapy, 8(5), 862–886. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0005-7894(77)80157-3
  • Lutz, A., Slagter, H. A., Dunne, J. D., & Davidson, R. J. (2008). Attention regulation and monitoring in meditation. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 12(4), 163–169. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2008.01.005
  • Merleau-Ponty, M. (2012). Phénoménologie de la perception. Gallimard. (Original work published 1945)
  • Ochsner, K. N., & Gross, J. J. (2005). The cognitive control of emotion. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 9(5), 242–249. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2005.03.010
  • Pascual-Leone, A., Nguyet, D., Cohen, L. G., Brasil-Neto, J. P., Cammarota, A., & Hallett, M. (1995). Modulation of muscle responses evoked by transcranial magnetic stimulation during the acquisition of new fine motor skills. Journal of Neurophysiology, 74(3), 1037–1045. https://doi.org/10.1152/jn.1995.74.3.1037
  • Pascual-Leone, A., Amedi, A., Fregni, F., & Merabet, L. B. (2005). The plastic human brain cortex. Annual Review of Neuroscience, 28, 377–401. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.neuro.27.070203.144216
  • Pearson, J., Naselaris, T., Holmes, E. A., & Kosslyn, S. M. (2015). Mental imagery: Functional mechanisms and clinical applications. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 19(10), 590–602. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2015.08.003
  • Pribram, K. H. (1991). Brain and perception: Holonomy and structure in figural processing. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
  • Pribram, K. H. (1999). Brain and consciousness: Some lessons from quantum physics. In S. R. Hameroff, A. W. Kaszniak, & A. C. Scott (Eds.), Toward a science of consciousness II: The second Tucson discussions and debates (pp. 307–318). MIT Press.
  • Prochazkova, E., & Kret, M. E. (2017). Connecting minds and sharing emotions through mimicry: A neurocognitive model of emotional contagion. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, 80, 99–114. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2017.05.013
  • Pylyshyn, Z. W. (1973). What the mind's eye tells the mind's brain: A critique of mental imagery. Psychological Bulletin, 80(1), 1–24. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0034650
  • Pylyshyn, Z. W. (1984). Computation and cognition: Toward a foundation for cognitive science. MIT Press.
  • Ranganathan, V. K., Siemionow, V., Liu, J. Z., Sahgal, V., & Yue, G. H. (2004). From mental power to muscle power: Gaining strength by using the mind. Neuropsychologia, 42(7), 944–956. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2003.11.018
  • Rao, R. P. N., & Ballard, D. H. (1999). Predictive coding in the visual cortex: A functional interpretation of some extra-classical receptive-field effects. Nature Neuroscience, 2(1), 79–87. https://doi.org/10.1038/4580
  • Rizio, A. A., & Dennis, N. A. (2013). The neural correlates of cognitive control: Successful remembering and intentional forgetting. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 25(2), 297–312. https://doi.org/10.1162/jocn_a_00310
  • Rizzolatti, G., Fadiga, L., Gallese, V., & Fogassi, L. (1996). Premotor cortex and the recognition of motor actions. Cognitive Brain Research, 3(2), 131–141. https://doi.org/10.1016/0926-6410(95)00038-0
  • Rizzolatti, G., & Craighero, L. (2004). The mirror-neuron system. Annual Review of Neuroscience, 27, 169–192. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.neuro.27.070203.144230
  • Sartre, J.-P. (1992). L'imaginaire: Psychologie phénoménologique de l'imagination. Gallimard. (Original work published 1940)
  • Schacter, D. L., Addis, D. R., Hassabis, D., Martin, V. C., Spreng, R. N., & Szpunar, K. K. (2012). The future of memory: Remembering, imagining, and the brain. Neuron, 76(4), 677–694. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuron.2012.11.001
  • Slagter, H. A., Lutz, A., Greischar, L. L., Francis, A. D., Nieuwenhuis, S., Davis, J. M., & Davidson, R. J. (2007). Mental training affects distribution of limited brain resources. PLoS Biology, 5(6), e138. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.0050138
  • Slagter, H. A., Lutz, A., Greischar, L. L., Nieuwenhuis, S., & Davidson, R. J. (2009). Theta phase synchrony and conscious target perception: Impact of intensive mental training. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 22(3), 641–664. https://doi.org/10.1162/jocn.2009.21125
  • Talmi, D. (2013). Enhanced emotional memory: Cognitive and neural mechanisms. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 22(6), 430–436. https://doi.org/10.1177/0963721413498893
  • The Holy Bible. (1989). New Revised Standard Version. National Council of Churches.
  • Tononi, G. (2004). An information integration theory of consciousness. BMC Neuroscience, 5, 42. https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2202-5-42
  • Tononi, G. (2008). Consciousness as integrated information: A provisional manifesto. The Biological Bulletin, 215(3), 216–242. https://doi.org/10.2307/25470707
  • Tononi, G., Boly, M., Massimini, M., & Koch, C. (2016). Integrated information theory: From consciousness to its physical substrate. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 17(7), 450–461. https://doi.org/10.1038/nrn.2016.44
  • Varela, F. J., Thompson, E., & Rosch, E. (1991). The embodied mind: Cognitive science and human experience. MIT Press.
  • Velmans, M. (2009). How to define consciousness—and how not to define it. Journal of Consciousness Studies, 16(5), 139–156.
  • Von Stein, A., & Sarnthein, J. (2000). Different frequencies for different scales of cortical integration: From local gamma to long range alpha/theta synchronization. International Journal of Psychophysiology, 38(3), 301–313. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11102669/
  • Vrana, S. R., & Lang, P. J. (1990). Fear imagery and the startle-probe reflex. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 99(2), 189–197. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-843X.99.2.189
  • Wilhelm, I., Diekelmann, S., & Born, J. (2011). Sleep selectively enhances memory expected to be of future relevance. Journal of Neuroscience, 31(5), 1563–1569. https://doi.org/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.3575-10.2011