Visual mental imagery: More than “seeing with the mind’s eye”

We are able to perceive and understand objects, faces, scenes, and events in the environment because our brains construct internal representations of these entities on the basis of information conveyed by our sensory organs. These internal representations are not only activated by information coming from the sensory organs, during perception, but can also be reactivated endogenously in the absence of any external stimulation, during mental imagery. Although mental imagery can take place in all modalities (visual, auditory, tactile, and so on), here we focus on visual mental imagery, the most studied modality. We also discuss motor imagery, a distinct form of mental imagery that relies on the motor system and that often accompanies visual mental imagery.