20 January 2026, by Uğur Turhan

New collaborative study published in Nature Communications co-authored by Rasmus Bruckner. 

This study demonstrates that human preferences are not only shaped by real-world events but also by internal simulations. Using computational modeling and functional MRI, the research shows that imagining positive interactions triggers 'endogenous prediction errors', that is, internal signals that occur when a simulation is more pleasant than expected. These signals mirror the neural mechanisms of real-life reinforcement learning, specifically engaging the striatum to update the perceived value of social partners. Ultimately, the findings reveal that the brain learns from purely imagined experiences by coopting the same neural systems used for physical rewards.