Imagination inflation

Biological Parallel

Animals mentally rehearsing actions (like cats wiggling before pouncing) create motor memories that feel increasingly real with repetition—imagination uses the same neural circuits as action, and repeated simulation strengthens those pathways. Each time you imagine an event, reconsolidation strengthens the memory trace, inflating confidence it occurred. Imagination inflation is mental practice backfiring: rehearsal mechanisms evolved for skill-building inadvertently create false memory when applied to events.