How does that work?
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Research points towards the idea that mental imagery is a separate system from regular memory. For example, rather than using the back of the brain where your eyes are connected and vision is processed, visual mental imagery has been observed to be tied to an area on the sides closer to the ears. As a result you can have people who are blind that can form mental images (assuming they weren’t blind from birth) as well as people who can see but can’t make mental images (which is called aphantasia).
Taken together this suggests that rather than recreating the exact sensation of looking at something, mental imagery works more on the concept level. In other words, if you look at an apple, your vision system can process the color red, a specifically round shape, the object’s relative size and a whole bunch of other small individual details that add up to you making the decision that “this is an apple”. Since we don’t see all of those color and shape areas activate when looking at the brain activity of someone who is making a mental image of that same apple, the current assumption is that the brain just reactivates “this is an apple” without all of the other detail. It’s more efficient so it makes sense. We also see the same type of thing in animals but it’s a pretty under-studied field.
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