Andrey Vyshedskiy: The neuroscience of imagination

The neuroscience of imagination

Imagine, for a second, a duck teaching a French class. A ping-pong match in orbit around a black hole. A dolphin balancing a pineapple. You probably haven't actually seen any of these things. But you could imagine them instantly. How does your brain produce an image of something you've never seen? Andrey Vyshedskiy details the neuroscience of imagination. [Directed by Tomás Pichardo-Espaillat, narrated by Addison Anderson, music by Cem Misirlioglu].

The brain can instantly combine familiar elements into entirely new mental images, like a dolphin balancing a pineapple. This creative feat relies on precise coordination between different brain regions, with the prefrontal cortex synchronizing signals across distant neural networks. Myelin, a fatty insulator around neural fibers, helps electrical impulses arrive in perfect sync, especially as the brain develops in childhood. These synchronized connections allow humans to imagine things they have never actually seen.