Integration of “what” and “where” in frontal cortex during visual imagery of scenes

Our results indicate that frontal regions integrate the “what” and “where” content of our thoughts into one visually imagined scene. We link early synchronisation of anterior theta and beta oscillations to regional activation of right and central frontal cortices, reflecting retrieval and integration of information. These frontal regions orchestrate remote occipital-temporal regions (including calcarine sulcus and parahippocampal gyrus) that encode the detailed representations of the objects, and parietal “where” regions that encode the spatial layout into forming one coherent mental picture. Specifically the mesial superior frontal gyrus appears to have a principal integrative role, as its activity during the visualisation of the scene predicts subsequent performance on the imagery task.