Seeing the Bigger Picture: Visual Imagination and the Social Brain

我研究了与视觉艺术和复杂图像相关的视觉想象的多模态方面，将“视觉想象”广义地定义为复杂心理过程的动态，将视觉信息与先前的经验和知识结合起来，构建自己，他人和外部世界的内部模型。这反映了我工作的最终目标，即开发有吸引力的文化和临床资源，加强社交大脑网络，针对个人兴趣，年龄和认知健康。我从事两个相互关联的研究项目，主要基于维康收藏，作为我的跨学科居住的一部分。研究摘要我使用神经科学和视觉研究的互补方法来探索视觉想象与神经健康成年人和患有各种形式痴呆症的人的社会脑之间的关系。（Alcalá López et al.，Cerebral Cortex 2017）最近从22712名健康成人的3972项功能性神经成像研究中计算得出：为了将我在社会脑中的研究背景化，我首先将社会脑连接体翻译成社会脑图谱的四个层次处理水平的功能信息图（关系空间表示），并生成健康成人的视觉想象脑轮廓和典型痴呆综合征的轮廓。我招募了三组参与者：17名年龄在20-30岁之间的神经系统健康的成年人，20名年龄在50岁以上的神经系统健康的成年人，和11名患有各种形式痴呆症的老年人。我设计了五个神经科学实验，在其中，我使用先进的技术来捕捉生理反应，并建立了新颖的视觉研究方法来研究视觉艺术，复杂的图像和色彩体验的神经心理反应。我采用了一种基于艺术的促进对话方法，视觉思维策略（VTS）;我开发了新的定量方法来分析记录的眼动跟踪数据，皮肤电活动和语音样本。我使用参数和非参数统计方法来比较参与者队列。在神经科学研究的同时，我在伦敦大学学院制作研究所和我在东伦敦莱姆豪斯的艺术工作室开发了一系列艺术实验。我的艺术研究补充了我的神经科学工作，强调个人经验而不是一般的感知机制：通过为个人与艺术的互动创造空间，研究在社会世界中变得情境化。我创建了两个摄影实验来研究光，颜色和形式之间的相互作用如何影响早期的视觉感知;一系列交互式光学仪器来改变佩戴者的视觉感知（“Perglasses”）;以及基于我的神经科学实验的交互式虚拟现实装置。从我的艺术研究反馈通知我创建的艺术展览，以补充我的博士论文。未来的发展方向在这项研究之后，我计划与我的合作者一起为社交脑图谱和VTS开发完全互动的动画数字平台。我将寻求在更大的老年人群体中复制和扩展我的发现，这些老年人患有明确的痴呆症诊断，包括功能性神经成像技术，以了解大脑中的行为和生理发现。在学术界之外，我将利用这项研究的结果为艺术博物馆和其他文化机构以及我的公司The Thinking Eye创建商业应用程序，旨在通过视觉艺术互动加强社会参与，仔细观察，发散思维和沟通技巧。根据我的博士研究结果，这些项目的设计将针对促进健康的认知老化和福祉。

I studied multi-modal aspects of visual imagination in relation to visual art and complex images, defining 'visual imagination' broadly as a dynamic of complex psychological processes that integrate visual information with prior experiences and knowledge to construct internal models of oneself, others and the outside world. This reflects the ultimate aim of my work to develop engaging cultural and clinical resources that strengthen social brain networks, tailored to personal interests, age and cognitive health. I pursued two interrelated research programmes based primarily at the Wellcome Collection, as part of my interdisciplinary residency with Created Out of Mind. Research SummaryI used complementary neuroscientific and visual research methods to probe relationships between visual imagination and the social brain in neurologically healthy adults and people living with various forms of dementia.The Social Brain Atlas and connectome (Alcalá López et al. , Cerebral Cortex 2017) was recently computed from 3972 functional neuroimaging studies in 22712 healthy adults: to contextualise my research in the social brain, I first translated the social brain connectome to functional infographics (relational spatial representations) of the four hierarchical processing levels of the Social Brain Atlas, and generated visual imagination brain profiles in healthy adults and profiles of canonical dementia syndromes. I used these to generate hypotheses and guide analysis of my neuroscientific experiments.I recruited three participant cohorts: 17 neurologically healthy adults aged 20-30 years; 20 neurologically healthy adults aged 50+ years; and 11 senior adults living with various forms of dementia.I designed five neuroscientific experiments, in which I used advanced technologies to capture physiological responses and established as well as novel visual research methods to study neuropsychological responses to visual art, complex imagery and colour experiences. I employed an arts-based facilitated conversation methodology, Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS); and I developed novel quantitative methods to analyse recorded eye tracking data, electrodermal activity and speech samples. I used both parametric and non-parametric statistical methods to compare participant cohorts.In parallel with the neuroscientific research, I developed a series of art experiments at UCL Institute of Making, and my art studio in Limehouse, East London. My artistic research complemented my neuroscientific work by emphasising individual experience over generic perceptual mechanisms: by creating space for personal interactions with art, the research becomes contextualised in the social world. I created two photographic experiments to study how interactions between light, colour and form affect early visual perception; a series of interactive optical instruments to alter wearers' visual perception ('Perspectacles'); and an interactive virtual reality installation based on my neuroscientific experiments. Feedback from my artistic research informed the art exhibition I created to complement my PhD thesis. Future DirectionsFollowing on from this study, with my collaborators I plan to develop fully interactive, animated digital platforms for the Social Brain Atlas and VTS.I will seek to replicate and extend my findings in larger cohorts of senior adults living with well-defined dementia diagnoses, including functional neuroimaging techniques to ground behavioural and physiological findings in the brain. Beyond academia, I will use the findings of this study to create programmes for art museums and other cultural institutions as well as commercial applications with my company The Thinking Eye, that aim to strengthen social engagement, careful observation, divergent thinking and communication skills, through visual art interactions. Informed by my PhD findings, the design of these programmes will be tailored to promoting healthy cognitive ageing and wellbeing.