Prefrontal analysis

Prefrontal Analysis (PFA) is a type of active constructive imagination that allows humans to mentally reduce an object. For example, humans can create in their mind a horse without a tail or a kettle with a broken handle. PFA is different from other types of active imagination: Prefrontal Synthesis that involves combining two or more objects together, integration of modifiers that involves integration of a single object with a modifier, and mental rotation.

On the neurological level, PFA is hypothesized to involve desynchronization of the part of an object-encoding neuronal ensemble (objectNE) from the rest of the ensemble. For example, when one imagines a kettle with a broken handle, the lateral prefrontal cortex (LPFC) desynchronizes the handle from the rest of the objectNE of the kettle. LPFC-driven shift of a part of the objectNE out-of-phase with the rest of the ensemble, results in the perception of a new object encoded by those neurons that remain firing synchronously. The new object is a novel imaginary object since it was never before observed physically.