US EditionOptimists Share Neural Patterns for Future Thinking
KOBE UNIVERSITY, JAPAN, JUL 21 – Researchers using fMRI found 87 participants showed shared brain activity patterns among optimists, explaining their social connectedness and distinct processing of positive and negative future events.
- On 21 July 2025, researchers at Kobe University reported in PNAS that optimists’ brains show shared neural patterns, while pessimists’ brains display greater individuality.
- Using fMRI, the team scanned participants imagining future events, uncovering shared MPFC processing that supports episodic future thinking and underpins social connectedness.
- In the experiments, participants imagined positive, neutral and negative future events during fMRI scans, and then measured their optimism via questionnaire.
- Kuniaki Yanagisawa said `thinking alike` was made visible in brain patterns, noting optimists distance themselves emotionally from negative scenarios rather than positively reinterpreting them.
- The findings could help people learn to become more optimistic and may explain why optimists build wider social networks, stronger relationships and better mental health outcomes.
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Optimists Really Are All Alike: Brain Scans Show Their Minds Operate Similarly
Ever notice how pessimists seem to brood in their own unique ways, while happy people all sound eerily similar when describing their rosy futures? The post Optimists Really Are All Alike: Brain Scans Show Their Minds Operate Similarly appeared first on Study Finds.
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Total News Sources14
Leaning Left2Leaning Right2Center5Last UpdatedBias Distribution56% Center
Bias Distribution
- 56% of the sources are Center
56% Center
L 22%
C 56%
R 22%
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