Mental imagery, emotion and psychopathology across child and adolescent development

Abstract

Mental imagery-based interventions are receiving increasing interest for the treatment of psychological disorders in adults. This is based on evidence that mental imagery potently influences the experience of emotion in non-clinical samples, and that a number of psychological disorders are marked by syndrome-specific, distressing abnormalities in mental imagery. During childhood and adolescence, neurocognitive development impacting mental imagery processes may moderate its relationship with clinically-relevant emotional symptoms at a number of potential loci. Crucially, these changes could impact vulnerability to distressing mental imagery and the efficacy of mental imagery-based clinical interventions. This review synthesises evidence pertaining to developmental changes in the role and content of mental imagery, and in the cognitive sub-processes required to generate and sustain mental images. Subsequently, we discuss implications for understanding the developmental relationship between mental imagery, emotion and psychopathology. Translational cognitive neuroscience research investigating the content, emotional impact and neurocognitive substrates of mental imagery across development may reveal insights into trajectories of vulnerability to symptoms of a number of psychological disorders. If proper consideration is given to developmental factors, techniques based on mental imagery may be valuable as part of a treatment armoury for child and adolescent clinical populations and those at risk of emotional disorders.

Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Figures

Fig. 1

Decrease in reliance on mental imagery with age. In an initial non-imagery condition, 10 year olds and adults, but not 6 year olds, were faster to evaluate semantically-characteristic versus uncharacteristic features of animals (graph, dotted line). When subsequently instructed to use mental imagery (left), participants of all ages were faster to evaluate large versus small features (graph, solid line). This pattern of results suggests that 10 year olds and adults had access to a rapid strategy for evaluating the features based on semantic associations in long-term memory, whereas 6 year olds used mental imagery to actively generate the necessary information.

Fig. 2

Mental imagery sub-processes. As described in the Kosslyn computational model, mental imagery tasks require one or more of the following cognitive sub-processes: (a) image generation, or the formation of an image within a depictive buffer shared by incoming sensory input; (b) image inspection, which involves shifting one's attention to a particular aspect of an image; (c) image maintenance, or the retention of an image such that it continues to be available for inspection; (d) image transformation, for example, rotating, shrinking or in other ways modifying the image.

Fig. 3

Impact of mental imagery on emotion. (a) Participants construct a mental image based on experimental stimuli with positive or negative valence (left). Adults (right) show an increase in positive mood following image-based processing of positive material, and a decrease in positive mood following image-based processing of negative material (Pictet et al., 2011). This emotional effect is attenuated by verbal processing of the material (Holmes et al., 2009, Holmes et al., 2006). (b) Involuntary memories of a stressful film are reduced by performing a visuospatial task that interferes with mental imagery, and are unaffected by performing a verbal task. (Deeprose et al., 2012)

Fig. 4

Developmental trajectories of mental imagery and emotion. Potential implications for understanding vulnerability to emotional disorders and for clinical interventions are suggested.