Are you an optimist or a pessimist? A study reveals how your brain represents the future.

A new study published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) revealed that optimism and pessimism are not only manifested in attitude and behavior , but also in the way the brain represents thoughts about the future.

The research is titled ' Optimistic people are all the same : Shared neural representations that support episodic future thinking among optimistic individuals', echoing its main finding.

The brains of optimists tend to function more synchronously with each other, while those of pessimists show more diverse and individual patterns , the researchers note.

Optimists are all alike, but each pessimist imagines the future in his or her own way.

The research, carried out by Kobe University (Japan), used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to analyze the brain activity of 87 participants when they imagined different future scenarios .

The results showed that individuals with an optimistic attitude presented very similar brain activity patterns , especially in the medial prefrontal cortex, a key region for planning and representing the self over time.

In contrast, among participants with more pessimistic traits, neural patterns were much more diverse, suggesting a more idiosyncratic and less shared view of the future .

“Optimists are all alike, but each pessimist imagines the future in his or her own way ,” said Yanagisawa Kuniaki, one of the study’s authors.

The study supports the hypothesis known as the Anna Karenina principle , which states that successful outcomes share common features, while unsuccessful outcomes are more varied.

This theory was applied here to brain function: optimists show neuronal convergence when projecting into the future, while pessimists show greater dispersion.

Furthermore, the study found that optimists more clearly distinguish positive from negative events in their mental representations.

This difference does not imply that they reinterpret negative events in a positive way, but rather that they tend to process them in a more abstract and distant way, which could reduce their emotional impact.

An indirect consequence of these findings is that optimistic people may find it easier to understand and share others' vision of the future , which would strengthen their social ties.

Previous research has linked optimism with larger social networks, greater relationship satisfaction, and better perceptions of social support .

In terms of health, although having a positive attitude does not guarantee recovery from serious illnesses, it has been associated with better stress management and healthier lifestyle habits .

According to another study cited by the authors, personality traits could even influence the risk of developing neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's, although these are multifactorial conditions.

One of the questions this research raises is whether this neuronal synchrony in optimists is a biological trait or is built over time through experience, culture, or social environment.

“The everyday feeling of being in sync isn't just a metaphor. In a very physical sense, optimists' brains may share a common understanding of the future ,” the researchers conclude.