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imagination

This is a cartoon of a woman sitting under a tree. The tree is topped with a brain

·May 18, 2021·6 min read

What Happens in the Brain When We Imagine the Future?

When we imagine the outcome of future events, two sub-networks of the brain become active. One of the sub-networks focuses on creating the new event in our imagination, the other evaluates whether the event is positive or negative.

Featured Neuroscience

·May 17, 2021·3 min read

The Brain Networks Underlying Imagination

The default mode network is divided into separate sub-systems for constructing and evaluating imagined scenarios.

Auditory Neuroscience Featured Psychology

·August 1, 2020·4 min read

Many Writers Say They Can Actually Hear the Voices of Their Characters, Here’s Why

60% of authors say they can hear their characters' voices as they write. Some even say they could enter into a dialogue with their characters, and sometimes their characters 'talk back'. Researchers explore why this phenomenon occurs.

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Featured Neuroscience Visual Neuroscience

·July 13, 2020·6 min read

Is What I See, What I Imagine? The Neural Overlap Between Vision and Imagination

Using artificial intelligence and neuroimaging, researchers have identified a link between mental imagery and vision. The brain uses similar visual areas for mental imagery and vision but uses low-level visual areas less precisely for mental imagery than vision.

Featured Neuroscience Open Neuroscience Articles Visual Neuroscience

·June 22, 2020·5 min read

Being ‘mind-blind’ may make remembering, dreaming and imagining harder

Aphantasia, a disorder in which people are lack the ability to mentally visualize imagery, is also associated with a widespread pattern of changes to other important cognitive processes. Many with aphantasia report a reduced ability to recall past events, imagine the future, and dream.

This shows a woman surrounded by various objects like clocks and smoke

Featured Neuroscience Open Neuroscience Articles Visual Neuroscience

·May 6, 2020·6 min read

How strong is your mental imagery? It might depend on how ‘excitable’ your neurons are

The strength of a person's mental imagery is associated with excitability in the prefrontal cortex and visual cortex. Highly excitable neurons in the visual cortex may reduce a person's ability to imagine mental images. The findings shed light on how aphantasia, a condition where a person can not imaging mental images, may occur.

Featured Neuroscience

·January 30, 2020·6 min read

Brain’s ‘GPS system’ toggles between present and possible future paths in real time

Study shows how hippocampal cells can represent different hypothetical scenarios consistently and systematically over time. The findings shed new light on how place cells assist in decision making and imagination.

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Featured Neuroscience Open Neuroscience Articles Psychology

·November 16, 2019·7 min read

How humans’ sense of ‘intuitive physics’ leaves fingerprints on fictional worlds

Intuitive sense not only underpins our understanding of the real world but also helps inform us of the fictional worlds we create.

Featured Neuroscience Visual Neuroscience

·August 29, 2019·3 min read

Seeing it both ways: Visual perspective in memory

How we recall our memories, either through first-person perspective or as an observer, can affect the vividness and potency of the memory. Remembering an event in first-person perspective can make the memory stronger.

This shows an ancient statue of a lion man

Featured Genetics Neuroscience Open Neuroscience Articles

·August 6, 2019·7 min read

Recursive language and modern imagination were acquired simultaneously 70,000 years ago

A mathematical model suggests a genetic mutation which extended the critical period by slowing prefrontal cortex development in two or more children 70,000 years ago was one factor for the emergence of recursive language and modern imagination.

Featured Neuroscience Open Neuroscience Articles Psychology

·July 12, 2019·5 min read

The brain’s pathways to imagination may hold the key to altruistic behavior

Imagination helps us act altruistically, a new study reports. When we see others in trouble, we imagine how we can help before acting. Researchers implicate the medial temporal lobe subsystem in guiding our prosocial behaviors.

Featured Neuroscience Open Neuroscience Articles

·December 10, 2018·4 min read

Your Brain on Imagination: It’s a Lot Like Reality

A new neuroimaging study reveals imagination may help people with fear or anxiety disorders overcome them. The study reports imagining a threat can alter the way it is represented in the brain.

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