Researchers claim that it is not only our experience but actually our imagination that influencing our attitudes and mindset.
According to the study published in the Journal of Nature Communications, researchers believe there is a phenomenon attached to using imagination to influence memories or get locations. This is based on activity in a particular location in the front of our brains called the ventromedial prefrontal cortex.
The study analysed people who were asked questions about people they liked and didn’t like very much. They were put through a test via an MRI scanner which revealed whether they were lying or not. When the participants were lying, they were asked to imagine the way they would spend time with a much-liked person in a neutral zone.
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“So I might imagine myself with my daughter in the elevator of our institute, where she wildly pushes all the buttons. Eventually, we arrive at the rooftop terrace, where we get out to enjoy the view,” described the first author of the study, Roland Benoit.
After the scanning process, researchers were able to determine that the attitudes of the participants towards the places had changed. The neutral places that they imagined with people they liked were now more positive.
The ventromedial prefrontal cortex is where all the information about individual persons and places from our environment is stored. There was greater activity in the region when participants imagined spending time with a person they liked.