How Imagination Works
Mental Images Courtesy Alex Schlegel A small new study images the brain's "mental workspace." Look at these shapes for a few seconds. Then close your eyes, and try to imagine how they look. Try to take the mental image of one of them and break the shape into pieces in your mind, or combine it with another shape to make something new. Cognitive scientists hypothesize that our ability to imagine, to come up with mental images and creative new ideas, is the result of something called a "mental workplace," a neural network that likely coordinates activity across multiple regions of the brain. A new study from scientists at Dartmouth College paints a fuller picture of this mental workspace by imaging the brain regions involved with mentally manipulating images, like the shapes above. "Our lab is very interested in the kind of flexible cognitive behaviors that humans have," lead author Alex...