How does our brain distinguish between urgent and less urgent goals? Researchers at the University of Geneva (UNIGE) and the Icahn School of Medicine in New York have explored how our brain remembers and adjusts the goals we set ourselves on a daily basis. Their study reveals differences in the way we process immediate and distant goals, at both behavioural and cerebral levels. These discoveries, described in the journal Nature Communications, could have significant implications for understanding psychiatric disorders, particularly depression, which can hamper the formulation of clear goals.

Throughout the day, we set ourselves goals to achieve: picking up the children from school in an hour, preparing dinner in three hours, making a doctor’s appointment in five days or mowing the lawn in a week. These goals, both urgent and less urgent, are constantly redefined according to the events that occur throughout the day.