A new study reveals that when people think about the future, they are often ‘(over)optimistic’ about it. Scientists at University College in London and New York University found two regions in the brain, i.e. the amygdala and the rACC, which are linked to a positive, optimistic attitude in life. NewScientist reports:

“Brain scans obtained using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) revealed that reflecting on both past and future events activated the amygdala and the (rACC) areas, both of which sit deep in the middle of the brain. However, positive events – and particularly those imagined in the future – elicited a significantly bigger brain response in these regions than reflecting on negative events.”

I guess we could use an fMRI scanner next time we try to mix threat-oriented and opportunity-oriented people in a participatory future exploration.

Via Knack

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 25th, 2007 at 08:56 and is filed under future, science. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.