Subjective mental time: the functional architecture of projecting the self to past and future

Arzy, Shahar; Collette, Sven; Ionta, Silvio; Fornari, Eleonora; Blanke, Olaf

doi:10.1111/j.1460-9568.2009.06974.x

Cited by 104Memory Processes and InfluencesCognitive Functions and MemoryIdentity, Memory, and Therapy

Subjective mental time: the functional architecture of projecting the self to past and future

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Arzy, Shahar, Collette, Sven, Ionta, Silvio, Fornari, Eleonora, Blanke, Olaf·2009·European Journal of Neuroscience

DOI 10.1111/j.1460-9568.2009.06974.x

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Abstract

Human experience takes place in the line of mental time (MT) created through 'self-projection' of oneself to different time-points in the past or future. Here we manipulated self-projection in MT not only with respect to one's life events but also with respect to one's faces from different past and future time-points. Behavioural and event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging activity showed three independent effects characterized by (i) similarity between past recollection and future imagination, (ii) facilitation of judgements related to the future as compared with the past, and (iii) facilitation of judgements related to time-points distant from the present. These effects were found with respect to faces and events, and also suggest that brain mechanisms of MT are independent of whether actual life episodes have to be re-experienced or pre-experienced, recruiting a common cerebral network including the anteromedial temporal, posterior parietal, inferior frontal, temporo-parietal and insular cortices. These behavioural and neural data suggest that self-projection in time is a fundamental aspect of MT, relying on neural structures encoding memory, mental imagery and self.

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Sample size was derived from power analysis targeting an effect size of 0.6 for the present experiments.
“Sample size was derived from power analysis of previous BSC studies [97,98] and previous studies on mental time travel [28,30]. According to these studies, our target effect size was 0.6 for the present experiments.”
From First-person view of one’s body in immersive virtual reality: Influence on episodic memory (2019) · cites this paper as [28]
People tend to remember better life-episodes that are distinct and personally meaningful and relate to the self or self-consciousness.
“It has been well demonstrated that people tend to remember better those life-episodes, which are distinct and personally meaningful and, of importance for the present study, relate to the self or self-consciousness [21,24,28,30,124–126].”
From First-person view of one’s body in immersive virtual reality: Influence on episodic memory (2019) · cites this paper as [28]

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Authors: Arzy, S., Collette, S., Ionta, S., Fornari, E., & Blanke, O.
Affiliations: Hadassah Medical Center (IL)
École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (CH)
Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Vaudois (CH)
University Hospital of Geneva (CH)
Corresponding author: Arzy, Shahar
ORCID: Arzy, Shahar
Collette, Sven
Ionta, Silvio
Fornari, Eleonora
Blanke, Olaf
Venue: European Journal of Neuroscience
Publisher: Wiley
Published: 2009-11
Volume: 30
Issue: 10
Pages: 2009-2017
ISSN: 0953-816X (ISSN-L)
1460-9568
DOI: 10.1111/j.1460-9568.2009.06974.x
OpenAlex: W2120166648
Cited by: 104
References: 55
Citations by year: 2026: 3 · 2025: 9 · 2024: 6 · 2023: 4 · 2022: 4 · 2021: 4 · 2020: 8 · 2019: 4 · 2018: 8 · 2017: 2 · 2016: 7 · 2015: 6 · 2014: 9 · 2013: 8 · 2012: 8
FWCI: 3.39
Type: journal article
Language: en
Open access: green
infoscience.epfl.ch
Licence: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/termsAndConditions#vor (vor, 10 d)
Locations: European Journal of Neuroscience (publishedVersion)
PubMed (publishedVersion)
Infoscience (Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne) (submittedVersion)
Infoscience (Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
IRIS (submittedVersion)
SERVAL (Université de Lausanne) (submittedVersion)
Topics: Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Memory Processes and Influences
Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Cognitive Functions and Memory
Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Identity, Memory, and Therapy
Keywords: psychological time, self-projection, time perception, future imagination, face recognition (cognition), temporal distance, mental imagery, self, posterior parietal cortex, insula, temporoparietal cortex, inferior frontal cortex, event-related brain activity
MeSH terms: Adult, Brain Mapping, Cerebral Cortex, Face, Female, Humans, Image Processing, Computer-Assisted, Imagination, Judgment, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Male, Neural Pathways, Oxygen, Pattern Recognition, Visual, Photic Stimulation, Reaction Time, Mental Recall, Self Concept, Time Perception, Vocabulary, Recognition, Psychology

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Subjective mental time: the functional architecture of projecting the self to past and future

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