Buckner Randy L, Carroll Daniel C
Department of Psychology and Center for Brain Science, Harvard University, William James Hall, 33 Kirkland Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA.
Trends Cogn Sci. 2007 Feb;11(2):49-57. doi: 10.1016/j.tics.2006.11.004. Epub 2006 Dec 22.
When thinking about the future or the upcoming actions of another person, we mentally project ourselves into that alternative situation. Accumulating data suggest that envisioning the future (prospection), remembering the past, conceiving the viewpoint of others (theory of mind) and possibly some forms of navigation reflect the workings of the same core brain network. These abilities emerge at a similar age and share a common functional anatomy that includes frontal and medial temporal systems that are traditionally associated with planning, episodic memory and default (passive) cognitive states. We speculate that these abilities, most often studied as distinct, rely on a common set of processes by which past experiences are used adaptively to imagine perspectives and events beyond those that emerge from the immediate environment.
当思考未来或他人即将采取的行动时，我们会在脑海中将自己投射到那种不同的情境中。越来越多的数据表明，设想未来（前瞻性思考）、回忆过去、理解他人的观点（心理理论）以及可能的某些形式的导航都反映了同一核心脑网络的运作。这些能力在相似的年龄出现，并共享一种共同的功能解剖结构，其中包括传统上与计划、情景记忆和默认（被动）认知状态相关的额叶和内侧颞叶系统。我们推测，这些通常被作为不同能力进行研究的能力，依赖于一组共同的过程，通过这些过程，过去的经验被适应性地用于想象超出直接环境所产生的观点和事件。
