Neural evidence that vivid Imagining can lead to false remembering

Gonsalves, B., Reber, P. J., Gitelman, D. R., Parrish, T. B., Mesulam, M., & Paller, K. A. (2004). Neural Evidence That Vivid Imagining Can Lead to False Remembering. Psychological Science 15(10), 655-660.

Chapter 9 in the text explains the neurological processes involved in sensation of visual stimuli. Specifically, it mentions the involvement cingulate and parietal cortex. In this article, researchers found that these same areas that are utilized in visual imagery are associated and activated in encoding false images. Basically, the researchers attempted to induce false memories. They did this by instructing participants to read the names of common, concrete objects and mentally visualized them. Half of the names were followed by a photographic representation of the named object. In a surprise memory test given outside the scanner, subjects listened to object names and decided whether they had seen a picture of the object corresponding to each name. During the showing of words and sometimes pictures, fMRI images were recorded. In this experiment, participants had some level of difficulty distinguishing between perceived and imagined objects. Researchers found that in the participants who had false memories of perceiving objects, visual areas of the brain were more likely to be stimulated after the word had been presented. They were effective in observing neural events that coincide with the formation of false memories. Those who more vividly mentally visualize objects are more likely to remember actually perceiving them. This is particularly interesting to me because of its utility in application to my field of interest -- forensic psychology. Eyewitness testimony has been one of the most researched areas in this field, as well as one of the most controversial. Further understanding of how false memories are encoded, specifically visually, might help us further deal with the controversy of the validity of eyewitness accounts.  These are important specifically during the sensation and perception of events, persons, sequence of events, etc in the witnessing of a crime.