The role of the hippocampus and prefrontal cortex in imagining the future: Insights from studies of patients with focal brain lesions

摘要: This article focuses on the neural and cognitive component processes that support ability to imagine future (episodic thinking), which has recently been assumed rely reconstructive nature of episodic memory system. Functional neuroimaging studies have demonstrated presence a common core network, underlies autobiographical remembering thinking. network includes many regions traditionally associated with memory, such as hippocampus areas in prefrontal cortex. However, inconsistent findings emerged from recent thinking patients amnesia hippocampal damage, suggesting imagining may not be entirely dependent this structure. The existing evidence for impairments damage is at best either indirect, coming impaired planning decision-making, or rest few case reports. Thus, precise role pr...