Professor Annabel Chen, a clinical neuropsychologist and director of the Centre for Research and Development in Learning at Nanyang Technological University (NTU), pointed to the results of brain imaging studies.
She said that they show that when people think positively about themselves or their goals, parts of the brain linked to motivation and reward light up – particularly the ventral striatum and prefrontal cortex, which govern decision-making and attention.
“The ventromedial prefrontal cortex, in particular, is consistently activated during self-affirmation tasks,” said Prof Chen.
“It helps us link new goals with our personal values and essentially tells the brain: ‘This matters to me’.”
When the ventromedial prefrontal cortex works in tandem with reward circuits, the brain assigns higher motivational value to a goal, making it more likely for us to take concrete steps to follow through.
“These same regions help us decide what is worth doing. So, when you visualise your goals, your brain starts treating them as more important and making you more likely to take action,” said Prof Chen.
In fact, Dr Mitter from Us Therapy said that the act of visualisation employs many of the same neural pathways as actual experience.
In other words, mentally rehearsing a movement or action can activate the motor cortex almost as if you were physically performing it.
This is a technique athletes use all the time: picturing a flawless serve or sprint engages the brain’s motor regions much like the actual motion itself.
SIT’s Dr Liu explained that the act of visualisation allows us to vividly imagine a scene or object in detail. Research using functional magnetic resonance imaging has found that this activates many of the same brain regions as actually seeing the real thing.
