24-year-old Ananya, a graduate student, would frequently replay in her mind presentations given weeks before, remembering each detail, the questions she didn’t know the answer to, how classmates replied, her embarrassment later. In fact, not only did Ananya tend to visualize scenarios for the future, imagining how she would perform at subsequent presentations, the possible tough questions that might be posed, and future career success, but these kinds of imaginings frequently made it difficult for her to sleep, leading to feelings of anxiety and mental fatigue. This mental exercise of recalling or predicting events is part of a larger phenomenon called mental time travel.
Humans have an amazing capability to be able to think past the current moment in time. Most other animals cannot do this. Humans are able to remember past events and to think about future events without having to physically experience them, which is referred to as Mental Time Travel. Mental Time Travel serves an important function in terms of our ability to learn from the past and prepare for challenges we will face in the future through planning, problem-solving and making decisions (Suddendorf & Corballis, 2007).
Numerous scientific discoveries regarding the function of the human brain have demonstrated that psychological “travel” into past events or images of possible futures is dependent upon many different brain areas working together. The ability to mentally “time travel” provides unique opportunities for individual development and creative thought. However, there can be negative consequences to using mental “travel” in the form of heightened risk of experiencing anxiety, depressed mood, or emotional distress when engaged in repetitive thinking about painful experiences or worrying excessively about potential future outcomes (Schacter et al., 2012). For a better understanding of the psychological benefits of mental “travel” as well as the psychological costs associated with it. It is important first to understand how your brain accomplishes these types of tasks.
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The Brain Mechanisms Behind Mental Time Travel
The DMN (default mode network) supports mental time travel with associated brain connections that are activated while performing some tasks (e.g., remembering past events; projecting future events; self-reflecting; daydreaming, etc.) (Buckner et al., 2008). The structure of the hippocampus contains two primary elements: a memory database that stores long-term memories and a construction database that aids in the creation of imagined future experiences based on retrieved past experience elements; as such, future projections tend to have high quality versions (Addis et al., 2007).
The amygdala and prefrontal cortex are both other brain regions in addition to the hippocampus that have significant functions related to memory. The prefrontal cortex is connected with planning and decision-making and assessing different options. While the amygdala provides emotions to the experiences of past memories and imagined events (McGaugh, 2004). According to research, recall of past memories and imagination of future situations involve many of the same brain regions, suggesting that we reconstruct memory in order to create an accurate representation of future events (Schacter & Addis, 2007).
Cognitive and Emotional Functions of Mental Time Travel
Mental time travelling encompasses much more than just recalling past events or envisioning what is to come. It is an advanced mental skill that provides people with the ability to go back to experiences they have had previously in their mind and to create hypothetical scenarios about things that maybe are going to happen in the future. The brain’s ability to use memories that have been stored away in its memory bank allows people to learn from past experiences and be able to anticipate and plan for future challenges, make informed choices, as well as develop new ideas. Mental time travelling has a significant impact on a variety of aspects of everyday life (example: how we think about things, how we feel about things, and what behaviours we engage in; Schacter et al., 2012).
- Encourages the development of episodic memory. This enables the individual to recall their personal experiences with a high degree of detail and to draw lessons from them, whether they were successful or unsuccessful (Tulving, 2002).
- Allows for planning future behaviours. By visualising and thinking about future events, it allows an individual to be better prepared and more confident for the event.
- Provides the ability to compare different possible outcomes before carrying out an action. As such, enables an individual to make more informed decisions than would otherwise be possible (Schacter et al., 2017).
- Encourages creativity. Provides the individual with the ability to connect their past experiences in new ways to create ideas, innovations, and to solve problems.
- Strengthens an individual’s sense of identity. By understanding the ways in which past experiences have impacted upon the individual. It will assist the individual in developing a sense of identity.
- Increases motivation. The individual will seek to achieve their goals the vision of these goals giving them the direction, purpose, and encouragement to reach them.
- Promotes psychological well-being. Having positive thoughts about future experiences is associated with optimism, resiliency, and improved emotional health (D’Argembeau, 2012).
- Can develop into rumination when thinking of one’s past. Without control or intervention, the individual may replay snippets of their past that are negative causing them to develop depression (Nolen-Hoeksema et al., 2008).
- It heightens anxiety regarding future events. Without control or intervention, the individual may continually think of negative future experiences leading to increased anxiety and anxiety disorders.
- Exhibits two different aspects of mental time travel. The brain regions that assist individuals in learning, planning and adapting will also maintain psychological and emotional pain when the individual continues to dwell on past thoughts or emotional pain.
In conclusion, mental time travel has both cognitive and emotional functions. Thus this capacity/range is vital for adaptation and survival throughout our lifetime. Furthermore, when used effectively and positively, purposeful use of this capacity for mental time travel serves to develop our memories, plan well for the future, create meaningful relationships and grow emotionally. However, it is equally important to achieve a balance between an active engagement in the present, properly preparing for future events and a healthy amount of reflective thought about past experiences. If this balance cannot be achieved, one may develop unhealthy thought patterns associated with excessive ruminating or anxious thinking resulting from a lack of mental well-being.
Benefits, Risks, and Healthy Ways to Use Mental Time Travel
By using time travel for mental gains productively. It may lead to your mental skills increasing exponentially from day to day with optimal application. Methods that could help increase you mentally are the following:
- Gaining insightful guidance through past learning experiences while avoiding the limitations of regret.
- Sharpening your decision-making ability through conscious and thoughtful reflection on possible outcomes.
- Nurturing your creativity through novel ways of turning your repository of memories into usable ones.
- Deepening your empathy and sense of perspective through the simple, act of putting yourself in another’s place.
- Helping your resilience through calling upon successful precedents that can serve as a reminder that you have overcome worse, and can do it again.
- Using mindfulness practices to curtail anxiety and negative musings about yesterday and tomorrow.
- Seeking out the skills and insight of a licensed mental health professional if you repeatedly return to the same set of difficult, thought loops that prevent you from being able to manage the demands of daily life.
Studies show that having both reflection skills and the capacity to focus on the here and now are important for our mental well-being. The most widely recognized tools of mind-traversal self-management, which include, for instance, mindfulness meditation (Kabat-Zinn, 2003), cognitive-behavioral therapy (Beck, 2011), journaling (Kashdan et al., 2009), and gratitude journaling, decrease the amount of dysfunctional rumination/brooding but spare adaptive future or past-oriented cognition.
Conclusion
Mental time travel is one of the greatest abilities of humanity’s mind. When memory, emotions, and executive systems work together, we can go back in our minds and re-live our own personal history and envision the numerous possibilities for our futures. Mental time travel provides the basis for planning, creating, making decisions, building a personal identity and many other critical processes that are integral to our daily lives and future triumphs (Suddendorf & Corballis, 2007).
While the ability to “mentally rewind” the past can provide us with significant strength. It can also be a source of potential vulnerability. Prolonged rumination (thinking about past events) and ongoing worry over what may happen in the future can lead to emotional disorders and poor overall health outcomes. By gaining a better understanding of how we process time, we can use our minds’ unique abilities more effectively learned from the past, by storing information for future use, and by remaining engaged in the present.
References +
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- Beck, J. S. (2011). Cognitive behavior therapy: Basics and beyond (2nd ed.). Guilford Press.
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- D’Argembeau, A. (2012). Autobiographical memory and future thinking. In D. Berntsen & D. C. Rubin (Eds.), Understanding autobiographical memory (pp. 311–330). Cambridge University Press.
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- Nolen-Hoeksema, S., Wisco, B. E., & Lyubomirsky, S. (2008). Rethinking rumination. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 3(5), 400–424.
- Schacter, D. L., & Addis, D. R. (2007). The cognitive neuroscience of constructive memory: Remembering the past and imagining the future. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 362(1481), 773–786.
- Schacter, D. L., Benoit, R. G., & Szpunar, K. K. (2017). Episodic future thinking: Mechanisms and functions. Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences, 17, 41–50.
- Schacter, D. L., Addis, D. R., & Buckner, R. L. (2012). Memory and imagination: Perspectives on constructive episodic simulation. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1262(1), 39–52.
- Suddendorf, T., & Corballis, M. C. (2007). The evolution of foresight: What is mental time travel, and is it unique to humans? Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 30(3), 299–313.
- Tulving, E. (2002). Episodic memory: From mind to brain. Annual Review of Psychology, 53, 1–25.
