April 16, 1999

Visual Imagery in Brain Is Needed for Thinking, Scientists Say

By DAVID L. WHEELER

Scientists have found that visual imagery in the brain is an essential part of processing information about remembered shapes or objects.

Stephen M. Kosslyn, a professor of psychology at Harvard University, working with colleagues there and at other institutions, used a novel technique to disrupt the activity in the part of the visual cortex known as "area 17." When that portion of the brain was disrupted, the

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