Is imagination another form of memory

Connection between hippocampus and ImaginationImagination

Is imagination another form of memory
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  • hippocampus vital in constructing novel scenarios (also used for memory recall) patients with hippocampal damage have trouble imagining future events
  • using multivariate fMRI imaging, researchers were able to detect differences in the type of activity appearing in the hippocampus between imagination and memory
  • study neglects to account for emotional response
  • Perhaps the hippocampus is sort of remixing memories to create novel imaginings

Because memory and imagination both use complex systems that all get aggregated through the thalamus, it becomes difficult to determine the differences.

The Thalamus works like a switch board, moderating many different systems, from the hippocampus for memory information to the neocortex for higher processing, to the amygdala for emotions. All of these systems are used both when remembering, and imagining novel events.

It is unclear what the differences are in the brain when producing memories and when producing novel imaginings- it is possible the brain iteself can not really distinguish between the two- because even if the hippocampus returns imagined scenarios in a different way then remembered scenarios- the thalamus still seems to moderate emotional responses, neocortex reasoning responses the same.

i.e. if it feels real- it might as well be real


References

Is imagination Just another form of Remembering

The ultimate goal, Kirwan says, is to understand how the brain forms and retains long-term memories. “If the hippocampus is also involved in imagining the future, then that gives us important information on what the functions of this structure are and how it performs those functions.”