26 The English word imagination comes from the Latin term imagination, derived from imago, likeness. Are imagination and creativity synonymous in your opinion? bits and pieces: pezzettini to constrain: limitare to dispel: dissipare inner: interiore likeness: somiglianza previously: precedentemente IMAGINATION Where does imagination come from? Imagination is the ability to generate new experiences, thoughts, or representations of reality. These simulated mental pictures, ideas, concepts, and sensations do not come from sensory inputs, do not refer to the actual present, and have not been experienced by the person before; they depend on the person s ability to combine and modify previously stored information in new ways and insert it in a personal view of the world. In other words, imagination is the ability of human subjects to create new mental objects shaped by one s own inner world. As such, imagination may appear as a non-essential ability, but is, in fact, a biological function that is vital to human experience. Memory and imagination According to research, the main area of the brain which is activated when imagination is at work is the hippocampus, which is the area that is also the most engaged when storing memories. This makes sense in that imagination depends largely on memory: how would it be possible to imagine anything without the memories of things we have experienced in the past? Moreover, both skills memory and imagination involve essentially the same process: combining bits and pieces of experience with emotions, inner commentary, and things people have learned. To put it in another way, it is as if memory were a form of imagination: when we store an experience in our long-term memory, we put together visuals, sounds, and emotions from that experience and add to it an inner, personal narrative to sum it up and give it coherence. In other words, we create a memory of that experience using imagination. Alternatively, it is as if imagination gives memory a purpose: when we make decisions, we base them on what we have previously learned and experienced, in other words, we are able to imagine (and choose from) future scenarios thanks to memory. All in all, imagination is crucial for survival, providing us with tools to make decisions about how to behave in the future based on what we have experienced in the past and is stored in our memory. Brain and imagination We do not know much about how imagination is realised in the brain and, as with everything else, there is no single area of the brain responsible for it. Besides the hippocampus, the following areas help with the imaginative process and the creation of mental images and ideas: the prefrontal cortex, with its ability to regulate emotions and favour selfreflexion; the amygdala, which also processes emotions; the parietal and occipital lobes, responsible for spatial orientation and visual processing. 56