Construal level shifts integration and segregation of the brain network.

Abstract

The ability to expand and contract one's mental horizons allows people to regulate toward ends that are both distant and near. One challenge that people face when regulating toward distant relative to near ends is the lack of information about detailed specifics. In response, construal level theory (CLT) proposes that people engage in high-level construal-a representational process that highlights the essential properties of events that are invariant across potential instantiations. To tailor responses to more immediate events, however, CLT proposes that people engage in low-level construal-a representational process that highlights idiosyncratic specifics that distinguish events from one another. The present article uses network neuroscience to investigate the neurocognitive mechanisms for these representational processes. While undergoing fMRI, participants were instructed to think about the distant versus near future, and completed tasks that directly manipulated high-level versus low-level construal. Thinking about the distant future and engaging in high-level construal both promoted integration across the network (indexed by global efficiency). Thinking about the near future and engaging in low-level construal promoted segregation within the network (indexed by clustering coefficient). These are the first findings to document how the brain reconfigures to support the expansion versus contraction of one's mental horizons, and provides new insight into the neural mechanisms that help people regulate toward distant versus near ends. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).