How does the brain create imagination?

This article is part of a special series exploring the radical potential of the human imagination. Read more here.

Unlike more specialised kinds of mental processing, there is no dedicated “imagination cortex” that shows up on brain scans. Instead, imagination is the result of inputs from all corners of the brain and throughout the body.

We know that imagination doesn’t come in just one variety (see “The four types of imagination and how they create our worlds”) and isn’t experienced the same by all of us (see “The extremes of imagination reveal how our brains perceive reality”). But in recent years, neuroscientists have begun to get a clearer understanding of how the components of imagination work in the brain.

Advances in scanning the active brain – specifically, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) – have revealed that it is organised into several key networks. Each shares information within its network while also keeping in touch with others. This allows the brain to switch between different “modes” of thinking by selecting the right network for the job at hand.

Conjuring creativity

There are three key networks involved in our imaginations. The one most associated with such thought was discovered by accident in the late 1990s, when neuroscientists noticed a distinct pattern of brain activity when research participants were left waiting in fMRI scanners between tasks.

Regions of the brain associated with memory, mood and self-reflection became more active when the participants weren’t occupied by a particular task, signalling an internally focused state of mind. This became known as the default mode network (DMN), and it is in play when we let…