Episodic simulation - the mental construction of a possible future event - has been consistently associated with enhanced activity in a set of neural regions referred to as the core network. In the current functional neuroimaging study, we assessed whether members of the core network are differentially associated with the subjective experience of future events (i.e., vividness) versus the objective content comprising those events (i.e., the amount of episodic details). During scanning, participants imagined future events in response to object cues. On each trial, participants rated the subjective vividness associated with each future event. Participants completed a post-scan interview where they viewed each object cue from the scanner and verbally reported whatever they had thought about. For imagined events, we quantified the number of episodic or internal details in accordance with the Autobiographical Interview (i.e., who, what, when, and where details of each central event). To test whether core network regions are differentially associated with subjective experience or objective episodic content, imagined future events were sorted as a function of their rated vividness or the amount of episodic detail. Univariate analyses revealed that some regions of the core network were uniquely sensitive to the vividness of imagined future events, including the hippocampus (i.e., high > low vividness), whereas other regions, such as the lateral parietal cortex, were sensitive to the amount of episodic detail in the event (i.e., high > low episodic details). The present results indicate that members of the core network support distinct episodic simulation-related processes.

中文翻译：

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核心情景模拟网络作为主观体验和客观内容的函数分离。

情景模拟——未来可能发生的事件的心理构建——一直与一组称为核心网络的神经区域的活动增强有关。在当前的功能性神经影像研究中，我们评估了核心网络的成员是否与未来事件的主观体验（即生动性）与包含这些事件的客观内容（即情节细节的数量）存在差异。在扫描过程中，参与者根据对象线索想象未来的事件。在每次试验中，参与者对与每个未来事件相关的主观生动性进行评分。参与者完成了一次扫描后采访，他们从扫描仪中查看了每个对象的线索，并口头报告了他们的想法。对于想象中的事件，我们根据自传访谈量化了情节或内部细节的数量（即每个中心事件的人物、内容、时间和地点）。为了测试核心网络区域是否与主观体验或客观情节内容存在差异，我们将想象中的未来事件作为其评级生动性或情节细节数量的函数进行排序。单变量分析显示，核心网络的某些区域对想象的未来事件的生动性特别敏感，包括海马（即，高 > 低生动性），而其他区域，如顶叶外侧皮层，对想象的未来事件的数量敏感事件中的情节细节（即，高 > 低情节细节）。