Psychologists at Washington University have found that thought patterns that relate to remembering the past may go hand-in-hand with those associated with envisioning the future. After giving several participants a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scan, they found that both memories and imagination of the future through a first-person point of view cause activity within the same brain network.
The participants were given ten seconds to develop a mental image of themselves or a celebrity participating in common life experiences, such as getting lost or spending time with a good friend. They were then asked to recall an event from their past, envision the event as if it were occurring to them in the future, or to picture the celebrity participating in the event.
It was originally presumed that all future-related activity took place within the frontal lobe, the area of the brain correlated with planning, anticipation, and monitoring. While there was neural activity there, it was clear that it extended beyond that area when an individual imagined his or her “self future”. The envisioning allows the brain to, perhaps, portray signs of visual and location-oriented activity based on information from past experiences. This gives us a sense that imagination derives, at least partially, from experiences that we have already had.
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