Abstract

Mental Time Travel (MTT) allows us to remember past events and imagine future ones. According to previous literature, the Temporal Distance of events affects MTT: our ability to order events worsens for close, compared to far, events. However, those studies established distances a-priori, albeit the way we perceive events’ temporal distance may subjectively differ from their objective distance. Thus, in the current study, we aimed to investigate the effects of Perceived Temporal Distance (PTD) on the MTT ability and the brain areas mediating this process. Thirty-three healthy volunteers took part in an fMRI MTT task. Participants were asked to project themselves into the past, present, or future, and to judge a series of events as relative-past or relative-future, in relation to the adopted time location. Outside the scanner, participants provided PTD estimates for each stimulus of the MTT task. Participants’ performance and functional activity were analyzed as a function of these estimations. At the behavioural level, PTD predicts the modulation of the performance for relative-past and relative-future. Bilateral angular gyrus, retrosplenial cortex, temporo-parietal region and medial, middle and superior frontal gyri mediate the PTD effect. In addition to these areas, the closer the relative-future events are perceived, the higher the involvement of left parahippocampal and lingual gyri and right cerebellum. Thus, perceived proximity of events activates frontal and posterior parietal areas, which therefore might mediate the processing of PTD in the cognitive spatial representation of time. Future proximity also activates cerebellum and medial temporal areas, known to be involved in imaginative and constructive cognitive functions.

中文翻译：

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事件的感知时间距离对心理时间旅行及其底层大脑回路的影响

摘要

心理时间旅行（MTT）使我们能够记住过去的事件并想象未来的事件。根据之前的文献，事件的时间距离会影响 MTT：与远距离事件相比，我们对近距离事件进行排序的能力会较差。然而，这些研究先验地确定了距离，尽管我们感知事件时间距离的方式可能主观上与其客观距离不同。因此，在本研究中，我们旨在研究感知时间距离（PTD）对 MTT 能力以及介导这一过程的大脑区域的影响。33 名健康志愿者参加了 fMRI MTT 任务。参与者被要求将自己投射到过去、现在或未来，并根据所采用的时间地点判断一系列事件是相对过去还是相对未来。在扫描仪之外，参与者提供了 MTT 任务的每个刺激的 PTD 估计。根据这些估计对参与者的表现和功能活动进行分析。在行为层面，PTD 预测相对过去和相对未来的表现调节。双侧角回、压后皮质、颞顶叶区以及额内、中、上回介导 PTD 效应。除了这些区域之外，感知到的相对未来事件越近，左侧海马旁回、舌回以及右侧小脑的参与程度就越高。因此，感知事件的接近性会激活额叶和后顶叶区域，从而可能介导时间认知空间表征中 PTD 的处理。未来的接近也会激活小脑和内侧颞区，这些区域参与想象力和建设性认知功能。