Creativity and Dreams: An investigation into the genesis of images, and altered conscious states

Dreams, imagination and hallucination constitute examples of conscious states where the veridical contents of the retina are overridden by `synthetic' content of internal generation. How the brain is able to do this is not comprehensively understood; with phenomenal investigation still comprising the most practical way apprehend such states, for scientific researchers and clinicians both. The development of empirical models will therefore necessitates interdisciplinary methods, to generate hypothesis and contextualise research findings. This thesis comprises an interdisciplinary attempt to understand internally generated content, and establish construct validity between neurophysiological and neuro-philosophical accounts of mental imagery and its genesis.