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Replay and preplay in the mouse hippocampus. This cartoon (from Moser and Moser 2011, reproduced from Nature with permission) shows that when an animal is resting, sequences of neural activity in its hippocampus resemble those that took place during a previous experience, suggesting that the experience is replayed. Dragoi and Tonegawa (2011) have shown that resting mice also preplay activity sequences that are predictive of subsequent activity in environments never visited before.
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On the face of it, memory, imagination, and prediction seem to be distinct cognitive functions. However, metacognitive, cognitive, neuropsychological, and neuroimaging evidence is emerging that they are not, suggesting intimate links in their underlying processes. Here, we explore these empirical findings and the evolving theoretical frameworks tha...
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... electrophysiological studies in rodents documenting preplay are starting to add to this evolving picture by hinting at animal parallels in imagining and predicting what might occur in the future (e.g., Diba and Buzsaki 2007;Tonegawa 2011, 2013;Johnson and Redish 2007;Moser and Moser 2011; Fig. ...
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... One fundamental aspect of human thinking processes is the possibility to follow internally a succession of thoughts, either to recollect memories or imagine present or future scene. Recent discoveries (Mullally & Maguire, 2014) have shown that all these activities might be related to the hippocampus a structure involved in episodic memory and spatial localization and its connection to the core system: a set of brain areas involved in resting state, representation of the self as well as the distinction between real and fictitious experiences (Hassabis, 2007). In this part, we want to get inspiration from some principles, like multiple feedback loops, to give DM the possibility to use, for example, such loops to emulate inner speech. ...
Along with the development of chatbot, language models and speech technologies, there is a growing possibility and interest of creating systems able to interface with humans seamlessly through natural language or directly via speech. In this paper, we want to demonstrate that placing the research on dialog system in the broader context of embodied intelligence allows to introduce concepts taken from neurobiology and neuropsychology to define behavior architecture that reconcile hand-crafted design and artificial neural network and open the gate to future new learning approaches like imitation or learning by instruction. To do so, this paper presents a neural behavior engine that allows creation of mixed initiative dialog and action generation based on hand-crafted models using a graphical language. A demonstration of the usability of such brain-like inspired architecture together with a graphical dialog model is described through a virtual receptionist application running on a semi-public space.
... Ritchey (2006) and Johansen (2018) emphasized the significance of consistency assessment in producing consistent scenarios. Recognizing that the future is non-linear and unpredictable (Gunnarsson-Östling & Höjer, 2011), scenarios allow us to embrace a range of possibilities rather than relying on a single vision with exact details (Mullally & Maguire, 2014). ...
This paper responds to the critical need for advanced decision-making tools in regional land use planning by developing an interdisciplinary spatial scenario planning framework based on morphological analysis. The research utilizes a case study of Gorgan Township (Iran), with the active participation of experts, to illustrate the practical implementation of the framework. The framework involves five steps: 1- defining a problem space; 2- conducting a consistency assessment; 3- performing a probability assessment; 4- generating scenarios using morphological analysis; and 5- georeferencing the scenarios. The study’s main methodological contribution lies in generating spatial robust and distinctive scenarios, specifically named for this research, that portray potential future land utilization patterns in the study area. These scenarios are consistent, probable, and plausible, ranked by their probability of occurrence, including Wounded City, Industrial City, Tired Farmer, Beautiful City, and Green and Peaceful City. For instance, the Wounded City scenario anticipates the depletion of natural land features due to urban and industrial expansion, impacting water resources, forests, and rangelands. Moreover, the findings across all scenarios highlight the adverse impacts of agricultural development on water resources, forests, and rangelands, emphasizing the need for informed land management strategies. These findings empower decision-makers to understand the consequences of present decisions and land use transformations, facilitating decision-making in regional land use planning for sustainable and resilient development amidst complex and uncertain challenges.
... The process of video or image synthesis begins with an initial sampling from a noise distribution, followed by iterative resolution of the neural differential equation to construct the final video or image. This encounters two challenges on digital computers: (1) The sampling process of diffusion models involves iteratively solving neural differential equations, or a substantial number of network inferences [14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21] . This yields considerable time and energy overheads on digital computers due to the massive data shuttling between physically separated memory and processing units in the von Neumann architecture 22 , along with the Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor (CMOS) device sizes that are nearing their physical limits 23-27 . ...
... To address this, we have developed a time-continuous and analog in-memory neural differential equation solver using resistive memory for score-based diffusion model, featuring the following advantages: (1) In-memory computing with resistive memory mitigates the von Neumann bottleneck [35][36][37][38][39][40] . Resistive memory arrays physically implement analog synaptic weight matrices of neural networks. ...
Human brains image complicated scenes when reading a novel. Replicating this imagination is one of the ultimate goals of AI-Generated Content (AIGC). However, current AIGC methods, such as score-based diffusion, are still deficient in terms of rapidity and efficiency. This deficiency is rooted in the difference between the brain and digital computers. Digital computers have physically separated storage and processing units, resulting in frequent data transfers during iterative calculations, incurring large time and energy overheads. This issue is further intensified by the conversion of inherently continuous and analog generation dynamics, which can be formulated by neural differential equations, into discrete and digital operations. Inspired by the brain, we propose a time-continuous and analog in-memory neural differential equation solver for score-based diffusion, employing emerging resistive memory. The integration of storage and computation within resistive memory synapses surmount the von Neumann bottleneck, benefiting the generative speed and energy efficiency. The closed-loop feedback integrator is time-continuous, analog, and compact, physically implementing an infinite-depth neural network. Moreover, the software-hardware co-design is intrinsically robust to analog noise. We experimentally validate our solution with 180 nm resistive memory in-memory computing macros. Demonstrating equivalent generative quality to the software baseline, our system achieved remarkable enhancements in generative speed for both unconditional and conditional generation tasks, by factors of 64.8 and 156.5, respectively. Moreover, it accomplished reductions in energy consumption by factors of 5.2 and 4.1. Our approach heralds a new horizon for hardware solutions in edge computing for generative AI applications.
... www.nature.com/scientificreports/ disorder-specific peculiarities, but they all depend on the same neural mechanisms that allow event recollection, imagination, and prediction 12,13 . It has been proposed that perseverative thinking represents a behavioural hallmark of inefficient allostasis 14 , which refers to the process of distress adaptation 15 and represents an adaptive autonomic anticipation of potentially stressful events 16 . ...
Cognitive control is a core feature of several mental disorders. A recent account poses that health problems may derive from proactive forms of cognitive control that maintain stress representation over time. The working hypothesis of the present study is that psychological distress is caused by the tendency to select a particular maladaptive self-regulation strategy over time, namely perseverative thinking, rather than by transient stimulus–response patterns. To test this hypothesis, we asked 84 women to carry out a battery of standardized questionnaires regarding their tendency to undertake perseverative thinking and their level of psychological distress, followed by cognitive tasks measuring the tendency to use proactive versus reactive control modality and disinhibition. Through a series of mediation analyses, we demonstrate that the tendency to use proactive control correlates with psychological distress and that this relation is mediated by perseverative thinking. Moreover, we show that the relation between low inhibitory control and psychological stress is more strongly mediated by perseverative thinking than impulsiveness, a classical construct that focuses on more transient reactions to stimuli. The present results underline the importance of considering psychological distress as the consequence of a maladaptive way of applying control over time, rather than the result of a general deficit in cognitive control abilities.
... Subsequent neuropsychological studies confirmed and extended this result, with hippocampal amnesiacs showing difficulties in imagining novel events and scenarios-located not only in the future, but also in the possible past (De Brigard & Parikh, 2019;Klein et al., 2002;Rosenbaum et al., 2009). Neuroimaging studies provided converging evidence for the close relationship, implicating brain networks consistently engaged in both remembering and imagination of possible events (Hodgetts et al., 2016;Mullally & Maguire, 2014;Schacter et al., 2012). Behavioral research revealed additional parallels, such as analogous temporal proximity effects and dependence on the capacity for generating mental imagery (D'Argembeau & Van der Linden, 2004, 2006. ...
The Galilean explanatory style is characterized by the search for the underlying structure of phenomena, the positing of "deep" explanatory principles, and a view of the relation between theory and data, on which the search for "crucial data" is of primary importance. In this paper, I trace the dynamics of adopting the Galilean style, focusing on the science of episodic memory. I argue that memory systems, such as episodic and semantic memory, were posited as underlying competences producing the observable phenomena of memory. Considered in idealized isolation from other systems, episodic memory was taken to underlay the ability of individuals to remember events from their personal past. Yet, in reality, memory systems regularly interact, standing in many-to-many relations to actual memory tasks and experiences. Upon this backdrop, I explore a puzzle about the increasing prominence of the notion of autonoetic consciousness in Tulving's theory of episodic memory. I argue that, contrary to widespread belief, the prominence is not best explained by the purported essential link between autonoetic consciousness and episodic memory. Rather, it is explained by the fact that autonoetic consciousness, hypothesized to uniquely accompany episodic retrieval, was considered a source of crucial data, predictable only from theories positing a functionally distinct episodic memory system. However, with the emergence of a new generation of theories, positing wider memory systems for remembering and imagination, the question of the relation between episodic memory and autonoetic consciousness has been reopened. This creates a pressing need for de-idealization, triggering a new search for crucial data.
... Evidence between thinking about the past and imagining the future was first studied by Addis et al (2007) who found that the same brain region was associated with both thinking about types of thinking, with the hippocampus being directly involved in both kinds of thought in humans (Martin et al., 2011). There is also evidence that that memory, imagining, and predicting the future are intimately connected through a common brain system (Mullally & Maguire, 2014) and that this brain system is also coupled to familiar visuo-spatial contexts during EFT (Szpunar et al., 2009). Zheng et al (2022) found that episodic memories are constructed through event cells (see section 2.2.1.3 ...
A fundamental problem in geospatial interface designs is how aspects of user cognition may be incorporated into their design structures for improved reasoning, decision making, and comprehension in geographic spaces. Narrative environments are one such example of geographic spaces, where stories are told and visually displayed. Recently, geospatial narrative environments have become a popular medium for visualising information about space and time in the Earth sciences. Consequently, effective ways of enhancing user cognition in these environments through visual narrative comprehension is becoming increasingly important, particularly for the development of interactive learning environments for geo-education. It was hoped that subtle visualisations of future tasks (environmental precues) could be incorporated into an ambient narrative interface that would improve user cognition and decision making in an immersive 3D virtual narrative environment, which acted as an experimental analogue for how the interface could operate in real-world environments. To address this, a hybrid navigational interface called Future Vision was developed. In addition to controller-based locomotion, the interface provides subliminal environmental precues in the form of simulated future thoughts by teleporting the user to a future location, where the outcome of a two-alternative forced-choice (2AFC) decision making task could be briefly seen. The navigational effectiveness of the interface was analysed using the Steering law: a geographic analysis technique for trajectory-based human-computer interactions. The results showed that Future Vision enhanced participants' navigational abilities through improvements in average task completion times and movement speed. When comparing the experimental interface (Future Vision) with the ii control interface (an HTC Vive controller), the results showed that the experimental interface was 2.9 times as effective for navigation. This was in comparison to an improvement of 3.3 times for real walking when compared to navigation using an Xbox 360 game controller in another study. The similarity in these values suggests that Future Vision allows for more realistic walking behaviours in virtual environments. Improvements were also seen in the 2AFC decision making task when compared to participants in the control group, who were unguided in their decision making. These improvements occurred even when participants reported being unaware of the precues. In addition, Future Vision produced a similar information transfer rate to brain-computer interfaces in virtual reality, where participants move virtual objects via motor imagery and the imagined performance of actions through thought. This suggests that visualisations of future thoughts operate in a motor imagery paradigm that is associated with the generation and execution of a user's goals and intentions. The results also suggest that Future Vision behaves as an optimally designed cognitive user interface for ambient narrative communication during navigation and decision making. Overall, these findings demonstrate how extended reality narrative style GIS digital representations may be incorporated into cognitively inspired geospatial interfaces. When employed in real or virtual geographic narrative environments, these interfaces may allow for new types of quantitative GIS analysis techniques to be carried out in the cognitive sciences, leading to insights that may result in improved geospatial interface designs in the future.
... Studies over the past two decades have provided important insights into the constructive process of episodic future thinking: information stored in episodic and semantic memory is flexibly selected and combined to create novel event representations (Irish & Piguet, 2013;Schacter et al., 2017;Suddendorf & Corballis, 2007). As the construction of episodic future thoughts became increasingly well understood, research indicated that different forms of episodic simulation rely on similar constructive processes, regardless of whether the simulation refers to the personal future or is atemporal, counterfactual, or purely imaginary (Addis, 2020;De Brigard & Parikh, 2019;Mullally & Maguire, 2014;Schacter et al., 2012). These findings suggest that although mental simulation is a necessary component of episodic future thinking, it is not sufficient for an imagined event to be perceived as a personal future occurrence (D'Argembeau, 2016;Klein, 2016;Mahr, 2020). ...
The feeling that an imagined event will or will not occur in the future – referred to as belief in future occurrence – plays a key role in guiding our decisions and actions. Recent research suggests that this belief may increase with repeated simulation of future events, but the boundary conditions for this effect remain unclear. Considering the key role of autobiographical knowledge in shaping belief in occurrence, we suggest that the effect of repeated simulation only occurs when prior autobiographical knowledge does not clearly support or contradict the occurrence of the imagined event. To test this hypothesis, we investigated the repetition effect for events that were either plausible or implausible due to their coherence or incoherence with autobiographical knowledge (Experiment 1), and for events that initially appeared uncertain because they were not clearly supported or contradicted by autobiographical knowledge (Experiment 2). We found that all types of events became more detailed and took less time to construct after repeated simulation, but belief in their future occurrence increased only for uncertain events; repetition did not influence belief for events already believed or considered implausible. These findings show that the effect of repeated simulation on belief in future occurrence depends on the consistency of imagined events with autobiographical knowledge.
... To further shed light on the neural changes induced by the different types of insight-imagination versus observationwe compared multivariate voxel patterns pre-and post-insight by performing a ROI-based representational similarity analysis (RSA; Fig. 6A). We focused exclusively on the hippocampus in this analysis because the hippocampus has been shown to play a crucial role in the imagination processes Mullally and Maguire 2014) and is also of paramount importance for mnemonic integration (Collin et al. 2015;Schlichting et al. 2015). To get more than a coarse picture of what is transpiring in the hippocampus, we divided the hippocampus along its long axis, as anterior regions have been found to be more relevant to mnemonic integration, whereas posterior regions are thought to be more involved in mnemonic segregation (Collin et al. 2015;Milivojevic et al. 2015;Schlichting et al. 2015;Brunec et al. 2018). ...
... Another factor that may have contributed to the lower insight in the imagination group is the higher activity of the anterior hippocampus during linking. Compared to the posterior hippocampus, the anterior hippocampus has not only been shown to be a hub for imaginative scene construction in previous research (Mullally and Maguire 2014;Zeidman and Maguire 2016) but to be also of pivotal importance for mnemonic integration (Collin et al. 2015;Schlichting et al. 2015). Thus, imagining the link may have interfered with gaining insight in the imagination group. ...
... To address this question, we focused on the insight phase. We hypothesized that the hippocampus would be more involved in linking via imagination than in linking via presentation because the hippocampus has been shown to play an important role in imagination (Addis et al. 2009;Mullally and Maguire 2014;Zeidman and Maguire 2016). We further assumed that this hippocampal recruitment during imagination could hinder mnemonic integration, as this process is also highly hippocampus-dependent (Collin et al. 2015;Schlichting et al. 2015). ...
Gaining insight into the relationship between previously separate events allows us to combine these events into coherent episodes. This insight may occur via observation or imagination. Although much of our reasoning occurs in the absence of direct sensory stimuli, how mnemonic integration is accomplished via imagination has remained completely unknown. Here, we combined fMRI with representational similarity analysis and a real-life-like narrative-insight task (NIT) to elucidate the behavioral and neural effects of insight through imagination (vs. observation). Healthy participants performed the NIT in the MRI scanner and underwent memory testing one week later. Crucially, participants in the observation group gained insight through a video, while participants in the imagination group gained insight through an imagination instruction. Although we show that insight via imagination was weaker than insight via direct observation, the imagination group showed better detail memory. Moreover, the imagination group showed no representational change in the anterior hippocampus or increases in frontal and striatal activity for the linked events, as was the case in the observation group. However, the hippocampus and striatum were more activated during linking via imagination, which might indicate that their increased recruitment during imagination impedes concurrent mnemonic integration but may facilitate long-term memory.
... Previous authors have identified cognitive barriers as a limitation of visioning, i.e. that people focus only on what is feasible or possible within their context (present or past), thereby perpetuating the status quo, as a challenge in visioning processes (Pinto-Correia et al., 2014). This may be explained to some extent by recent studies that show that constructing scenes of the future or new experiences (Gilbert and Wilson, 2007;Szpunar et al., 2018;Szpunar et al., 2014) share a common brain mechanism with (Mullally and Maguire, 2014). The link between imagination and memories raises important questions for the role of imagination in transformative change, that might be limited by the "source material" provided by (collective) memory and experience. ...
Societal and policy trends are leading to major demands on food systems, including a transformation towards more sustainable and resilient farming systems. Research is increasingly highlighting the importance of considering the landscape scale in such transformations, with the understanding that such an approach will require agricultural landscape design informed through trans-disciplinary approaches. Despite a number of sustainability transformations advocated in the scientific literature, there may, however, be very different views amongst actors of the food chain, from producers to consumers, over what such a transformed landscape should look like, leading to potential social conflicts and lack of progress towards transformative change. This has led authors to suggest a need to understand better the visions of a transformed agriculture from the perspectives of food system actors, including rural communities and farmers. This paper contributes to this debate by analysing stakeholder visions based on a case study in Bourgogne Franche-Comté (France) with three study sites involving: agriculture and water management near Auxerre, apiculture-agriculture in the Jura, and viticulture near Macon. Using the results of 55 interviews that included a ‘miracle question’ over what an ideal agriculture might look like, five ideal visions were identified: a recognised agriculture; a diverse agriculture; an anchored agriculture; a predictable agriculture; and a technological agriculture. Building on the differences and commonalities of the different visions, the results allow for the identification of areas of consensus, and also, where there are irreconcilable values and worldviews underpinning the views, how to address them. The process of visioning can be an important approach to promote greater understanding of different stakeholders’ visions and transformation towards greater sustainability, especially when the resulting visions become the starting point of participatory processes and outcomes at the landscape scale.
... Mullally, S. L., & Maguire, E. A. (2014). Memory, imagination, and predicting the future: A common brain mechanism? ...
History, as it is usually understood, is everything but creative: it represents, at best, the academically vetted story of our past and, at worst, the narratives imposed by those in positions of power. Yet, when faced with an uncertain future, where else can we turn if not towards our past? Where we come from does not only teach us lessons about the consequences of our actions and those of others-that letting populist discourses flourish, for instance, can open the door to authoritarian regimes-but it also has much to teach us about who we are. Are human beings, by essence, belligerent? Or are we, on the contrary, driven by a constant need to improve ourselves and the conditions in which we live? The literature on collective memory-how we represent history-and its relations to imagination has shown that, indeed, how we understand the past shapes what we believe about the present and the way we imagine our collective future. However, this does not mean that we are trapped by a history that defines a limited set of paths we may take: Collective memory is an open construction, where the complex reality of what happened can perpetually be reinvented and re-interpreted to guide not only what we think might be possible in the future, but where we believe we ought to go and how to get there. In this chapter, I briefly review the literature on collective memory and imagination. I first look at the role of our representations of history in how we imagine the future, examining in particular how past events help us frame the situation, provide us with examples of how things may unfold, and allow us to generalise about human behaviours and societies. Second, I discuss how our representations of the past are themselves reconstructions guided by our desire to give meaning to what happened, and by how we understand the present. This leads me to argue, in the final section of this chapter, that developing new narratives about history-grounded in facts but guided as well by a critical understanding of our present and by our ideals for the future-is not only possible but can also help us create better futures for ourselves and the generations to come. The role of the past in imagining the future How we-as non-historians-represent history has been studied in humanities and in the social sciences as "collective memory," a slightly misleading term given that it often concerns events we have no direct experiences of, and in consequence of which we have no memories.
