Dartmouth researchers discover how and where imagination occurs in human brains

New insights into 'mental workspace' may help advance artificial intelligence

2013-09-17

(Press-News.org) Philosophers and scientists have long puzzled over where human imagination comes from. In other words, what makes humans able to create art, invent tools, think scientifically and perform other incredibly diverse behaviors?

The answer, Dartmouth researchers conclude in a new study, lies in a widespread neural network -- the brain's "mental workspace" -- that consciously manipulates images, symbols, ideas and theories and gives humans the laser-like mental focus needed to solve complex problems and come up with new ideas.

Their findings, titled "Network structure and dynamics of the mental workspace," appear the week of Sept. 16 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

"Our findings move us closer to understanding how the organization of our brains sets us apart from other species and provides such a rich internal playground for us to think freely and creatively," says lead author Alex Schlegel , a graduate student in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences. "Understanding these differences will give us insight into where human creativity comes from and possibly allow us to recreate those same creative processes in machines."

Scholars theorize that human imagination requires a widespread neural network in the brain, but evidence for such a "mental workspace" has been difficult to produce with techniques that mainly study brain activity in isolation. Dartmouth researchers addressed the issue by asking: How does the brain allow us to manipulate mental imagery? For instance, imagining a bumblebee with the head of a bull, a seemingly effortless task but one that requires the brain to construct a totally new image and make it appear in our mind's eye.

In the study, 15 participants were asked to imagine specific abstract visual shapes and then to mentally combine them into new more complex figures or to mentally dismantle them into their separate parts. Researchers measured the participants' brain activity with functional MRI and found a cortical and subcortical network over a large part of the brain was responsible for their imagery manipulations. The network closely resembles the "mental workspace" that scholars have theorized might be responsible for much of human conscious experience and for the flexible cognitive abilities that humans have evolved.

INFORMATION:

Available to comment are Alex Schlegel at schlegel@gmail.com and co-author Professor Peter Tse at Peter.U.Tse@dartmouth.edu.

This study was funded by a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship and by a Templeton Foundation Grant.

Broadcast studios: Dartmouth has TV and radio studios available for interviews. For more information, visit: http://www.dartmouth.edu/~opa/radio-tv-studios/

ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

New insights solve 300-year-old problem: The dynamics of the Earth's core

2013-09-17

Scientists at the University of Leeds have solved a 300-year-old riddle about which direction the centre of the earth spins. The Earth's inner core, made up of solid iron, 'superrotates' in an eastward direction – meaning it spins faster than the rest of the planet – while the outer core, comprising mainly molten iron, spins westwards at a slower pace. Although Edmund Halley – who also discovered the famous comet – showed the westward-drifting motion of the Earth's geomagnetic field in 1692, it is the first time that scientists have been able to link the way the inner ...

Socio-economic status influences risk of violence against aboriginal women

2013-09-17

TORONTO, Sept. 13, 2013 – If aboriginal women had the same income and education levels as non-aboriginal women, their risk of being abused by a partner could drop by 40 per cent, according to a new study by researchers at St. Michael's Hospital. The new study indicates that socio-economic position is a major factor influencing risks of abuse for aboriginal women. "The unfortunate reality is that aboriginal women in Canada are almost four times more likely to experience gender violence, but we wanted to know why," said Dr. Janet Smylie, a scientist at the hospital's ...

Biologists develop new method for discovering antibiotics

2013-09-17

Biologists at the University of California, San Diego have developed a revolutionary new method for identifying and characterizing antibiotics, an advance that could lead to the discovery of new antibiotics to treat antibiotic resistant bacteria. The researchers, who published their findings in this week's early online edition of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, made their discovery by developing a way to perform the equivalent of an autopsy on bacterial cells. "This will provide a powerful new tool for identifying compounds that kill bacteria ...

SF State researchers steer light in new directions

2013-09-17

SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 16, 2013 -- A team of researchers led by San Francisco State University's Weining Man is the first to build and demonstrate the ability of two-dimensional disordered photonic band gap material, designed to be a platform to control light in unprecedented ways. The new material could allow researchers to manipulate the flow and radiation of light in new ways by breaking away from the highly angular and constrained pathways for light dictated inside orderly photonic crystals. Instead, the material could lead to arbitrarily shaped, wavy, curved, and sharply ...

Whole DNA sequencing reveals mutations, new gene for blinding disease

2013-09-17

BOSTON -- Retinitis pigmentosa (RP) is a genetic disease that causes progressive loss of vision and is caused by mutations in more than 50 genes. Conventional methods for identification of both RP mutations and novel RP genes involve the screening of DNA coding sequences. In a paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers from the Massachusetts Eye and Ear, Harvard Medical School, the University of Lausanne, Switzerland, and others tested DNA with the use of whole genome sequencing, a technique that takes into account all variants from both ...

Vaccinating cattle against E. coli O157 could cut human cases of infection by 85 percent, say scientists

2013-09-17

Vaccinating cattle against the E. coli O157 bacterium could cut the number of human cases of the disease by 85%, according to scientists. The bacteria, which cause severe gastrointestinal illness and even death in humans, are spread by consuming contaminated food and water, or by contact with livestock faeces in the environment. Cattle are the main reservoir for the bacterium. The vaccines that are available for cattle are rarely used, buc could be significant. The research was lead by a team of researchers at the University of Glasgow in collaboration with the ...

Copper bracelets and magnetic wrist straps fail to help rheumatoid arthritis, says York research

2013-09-17

Copper bracelets and magnet wrist straps have no real effect on pain, swelling, or disease progression in rheumatoid arthritis, according to new findings from a study conducted at the University of York. In the first randomised controlled trial to study the effects of copper bracelets and magnetic wrist straps on rheumatoid arthritis, 70 patients with active symptoms each wore four different devices over a five-month period, reporting on their pain, disability, and medication use throughout the study. Participants also provided blood samples, after wearing each device ...

Young breast cancer patients often overestimate benefit of having healthy breast removed

2013-09-17

BOSTON -- Young women with breast cancer often overestimate the odds that cancer will occur in their other, healthy breast, and decide to have the healthy breast surgically removed, a survey conducted by Dana-Farber Cancer Institute investigators indicates. The survey also shows that many patients opt for the procedure -- known as a contralateral prophylactic mastectomy, or CPM -- despite knowing it will be unlikely to improve their chance of survival. The study, published in the Sept. 17 issue of the Annals of Internal Medicine, shows a certain disconnect between ...

Sanford-Burnham researchers identify new target for melanoma treatment

2013-09-17

LA JOLLA, Calif., September 16, 2013 – Scientists at Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute (Sanford-Burnham) today announced the discovery that a gene encoding an enzyme, phosphoinositide-dependent kinase-1 (PDK1), plays an essential role in the development and progression of melanoma. The finding offers a new approach to treating this life-threatening disease. The team of researchers, led by Ze'ev Ronai, Ph.D., professor and scientific director of Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute in La Jolla (San Diego, Calif.), used genetic mouse melanoma models to show ...

Researchers identify novel biomarker for diabetes risk

2013-09-17

Researchers at the Vanderbilt Heart and Vascular Institute and Massachusetts General Hospital have identified a biomarker that can predict diabetes risk up to 10 years before onset of the disease. Thomas J. Wang, M.D., director of the Division of Cardiology at Vanderbilt, along with colleagues at Massachusetts General Hospital, report their findings in the October issue of The Journal of Clinical Investigation. The researchers conducted a study of 188 individuals who developed type 2 diabetes mellitus and 188 individuals without diabetes who were followed for 12 years ...

Dartmouth researchers discover how and where imagination occurs in human brains

ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES: