Excerpts: All animals can predict the hedonic consequences of events they've
experienced before. But humans can predict the hedonic consequences of events
they've never experienced by simulating those events in their minds. Scientists
are beginning to understand how the brain simulates future events, how it uses
those simulations to predict an event's hedonic consequences, and why these
predictions so often go awry.

Prospection: Experiencing the Future, Daniel T. Gilbert,  Timothy D.
Wilson, 07/09/07, DOI: 10.1126/science.1144161, Science: Vol. 317. no. 5843,
pp. 1351 - 1354

http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/317/5843/1351

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