ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Psychol.
Sec. Perception Science
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1608874
The Heart's Eye: How Mental Imagery Influences Romantic Emotion
Provisionally accepted
Boran Cui1*
Yulin Kong2- 1Affiliated High School of Peking University, Beijing, China
- 2Moonshot Academy, Beijing, China
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While mental imagery— the capacity to generate perceptual-like experiences in the absence of external stimuli — has been studied in fear and other domains, its influence in romantic emotional experiences has not been directly examined. Based on this hypothesis, we investigated how imagery vividness influences romantic emotions and their physiological underpinnings. Firstly, we reviewed our previous questionnaire data. Furthermore, we compared individuals with vivid imagery and aphantasia, a condition characterized by the absence of voluntary visual imagery, using electroencephalogram (EEG) and heart rate variability (HRV) during a romantic imagery task. Those with vivid imagery showed stronger neural markers (larger P3 amplitudes, extended LPPs, reduced occipital alpha activity) and heightened autonomic arousal (increased heart rate, suppressed HRV). Aphantasic participants exhibited muted neural responses and minimal autonomic changes, reflecting weaker emotional embodiment. These findings underscore that vivid visual imagery is a crucial driver of romantic emotional intensity and duration, whereas the absence of imagery can lead to a markedly diminished emotional experience.
Keywords: Mental Imagery, aphantasia, Romantic Emotion, neural correlates, autonomic responses, EEG, HRV
Received: 09 Apr 2025; Accepted: 30 Jun 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Cui and Kong. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Boran Cui, Affiliated High School of Peking University, Beijing, China
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