Here’s what you’ll learn when you read this story:We’re often told that there’s power in positive thinking, and a new study suggests this may be more scientifically true that we realize. Analyzing the brain imaging of 30 individuals, scientists discerned that a subject’s neural and behavioral outcomes shifted when simply vividly imagining a positive experience with an individual. To test this theory, fifty subjects participated in a brain imaging study and were asked to list 30 people ranked from most likeable to least. When someone unexpectedly enjoys an experience more than they thought they would, it’s known as a “prediction error,” and the brain subsequently builds neural connections to “lock in” that preference. While analyzing the neural firings in the brain of the 30 participants, scientists noticed that the ventral striatum (the brain region that controls reward prediction error) lit up more when the prediction error was stronger, i.e.