Imaginación consciente, creatividad y simulación mental (IMAG) como tecnología neurocognitiva candidata

Problem. Imagination is widely invoked in creativity, clinical work, decision-making, rehabilitation, and education, yet the generic term does not sustain high-precision scientific inference. The decisive methodological point is to separate external evidence, in-house documentary coding, hypotheses, and the pending empirical program. Aim. To reformulate IMAG as a candidate neurocognitive technology through three operations: a bounded documentary Study 0, integration with predictive processing/active inference, and differential prediction against existing imagery-based frameworks. Method. A compressed theory-method synthesis plus a minimal documentary audit of 22 core sources or documentary families, coded by domain, evidence type, authorized conclusion, and inferential limit; PubMed/MEDLINE and PsycINFO search strings are explicitly documented as a minimal procedure, but this is not reported as a completed PRISMA-ScR. Results. Study 0 does not validate IMAG globally and does not demonstrate bibliographic exhaustiveness; it provides an auditable documentary matrix showing that mechanism, domain-specific efficacy, safety, conceptual discrimination, and validation routes are not interchangeable. External literature supports domain-specific effects in episodic future thinking, creativity, imagery rescripting, mental practice, and Functional Imagery Training, together with mechanisms involving constructive memory, perceptual imagery, predictive processing, and active inference. Conclusion. IMAG is presented as a candidate neurocognitive architecture requiring empirical validation through PRISMA-ScR, Delphi-COSMIN, and preregistered randomized controlled trials.