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Fractionation of the default network during visual and verbal forms of imaginative thinking

Poster Session C - Sunday, March 8, 2026, 5:00 – 7:00 pm PDT, Fairview/Kitsilano Ballroom

Mariam Hovhannisyan¹ (), Shanshan Ma¹, Matthew D. Grilli¹, Jessica R. Andrews-Hanna¹; ¹University of Arizona

Human imagination – the ability to form mental representations not currently available to the senses –links many seemingly disparate complex mental phenomena, spanning autobiographical memory to mentalizing. Much of the work in this field has focused on the role of the default network (DN) in supporting such manifestations of imaginative thinking, yet there is less research on how subsystems within the DN support verbal vs. image-based forms of imagination and are sensitive to the construal level with which participants engage in imaginative thought. To begin closing this gap, we developed a novel fMRI task in which participants (ages 18-35) visualized and categorized concepts that varied in their abstract vs. concrete properties. Self-report ratings confirmed that task manipulations were successful in inducing low-level visual (“mind’s eye”) and high-level verbal (“mind’s mind”) modes of imaginative thinking, in line with a recent framework of imagination (Andrews-Hanna & Grilli, 2021). While aspects of the DN were recruited for both tasks, we observed greater engagement of the hippocampus and other regions within the medial temporal lobe subsystem when participants visualized concepts, as well as for concrete compared to abstract concepts. In contrast, left inferior prefrontal cortex and other regions within the dorsal medial prefrontal cortex subsystem were recruited more when participants categorized concepts, as well as for abstract compared to concrete concepts. These results suggest that the DN fractionates depending on the representational form and level of construal of imaginative content, with implications for understanding more complex forms of thought.

Topic Area: THINKING: Other