The future, before, and after: Bayesian and multivariate analyses reveal shared and unique neural mechanisms of imagining and remembering the same unique event.

Abstract

Research shows that the brain regions that subserve our ability to remember the past are also involved in imagining the future. Given this similarity in brain activity, it remains unclear how brain activity distinguishes imagination from memory. In the current work, we scanned participants using functional magnetic resonance imaging before and after they performed a highly unique and elaborate activity wherein they went skydiving for the first time in their lives. Multivariate pattern analysis, Bayesian inference, and a tightly controlled experimental design were used to identify the neural activity that differentiates between memory and imagination of the same events. The results showed that large swaths of the default mode network exhibited identical patterns of activity in recollection and imagination; several frontal areas were involved in imagination (but not in recollection). Representational similarity analysis revealed that the left ventral precuneus exhibited different patterns of memory and imagination. Further examination revealed that this subarea may be especially important for recollection of specific episodes. These results advance our understanding of how the critical distinction between the past and future might be manifested in the brain.