Imagining future scenarios involves recombining different elements of past experiences into a coherent event, a process broadly supported by the brain's default network. Prior work suggests that distinct brain regions may contribute to the inclusion of different simulation features. Here we examine how activity in these brain regions relates to the vividness of future simulations. Thirty-four healthy young adults imagined future events with familiar people and locations in a two-part study involving a repetition suppression paradigm. First, participants imagined events while their eyes were tracked during a behavioral session. Immediately after, participants imagined events during MRI scanning. The events to be imagined were manipulated such that some were identical to those imagined in the behavioral session while others involved new locations, new people, or both. In this way, we could examine how self-report ratings and eye movements predict brain activity during simulation along with specific simulation features. Vividness ratings were negatively correlated with eye movements, in contrast to an often-observed positive relationship with past recollection. Moreover, fewer eye movements predicted greater involvement of the hippocampus during simulation, an effect specific to location features. Our findings suggest that eye movements may facilitate scene construction for future thinking, lending support to frameworks that spatial information forms the foundation of episodic simulation.

中文翻译：

---

展望未来：眼球运动预测情景模拟期间的神经重复效应

想象未来场景涉及将过去经历的不同元素重新组合成一个连贯的事件，这一过程得到大脑默认网络的广泛支持。先前的工作表明，不同的大脑区域可能有助于包含不同的模拟功能。在这里，我们研究这些大脑区域的活动如何与未来模拟的生动性相关。在一项涉及重复抑制范式的两部分研究中，三十四名健康的年轻人与熟悉的人和地点一起想象了未来的事件。首先，参与者在行为会议期间想象事件，同时跟踪他们的眼睛。紧接着，参与者想象了核磁共振扫描期间发生的事件。想象的事件被操纵，其中一些与行为会话中想象的事件相同，而另一些则涉及新地点、新人或两者兼而有之。通过这种方式，我们可以检查自我报告评分和眼球运动如何预测模拟过程中的大脑活动以及特定的模拟功能。生动度评分与眼球运动呈负相关，而与过去记忆的经常观察到的正相关相反。此外，较少的眼球运动预示着模拟过程中海马体的参与程度更高，这是特定于位置特征的效果。我们的研究结果表明，眼球运动可能有助于未来思维的场景构建，为空间信息构成情景模拟基础的框架提供支持。