A short natural history of mental time travels: a journey still travelled?
Osvath, Mathias LU and Johansson, Mikael LU
(2024)
In Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
379(1913).
- Abstract
- Tulving’s introduction of episodic memory and the metaphor of mental time travel has immensely enriched our understanding of human cognition. However, his focus on human psychology, with limited consideration of evolutionary perspectives, led to the entrenched notion that mental time travel is uniquely human. We contend that adopting a phylogenetic perspective offers a deeper insight into cognition, revealing it as a continuous evolutionary process. Adherence to the uniqueness of pre-defined psychological concepts obstructs a more complete understanding. We offer a concise natural history to elucidate how events that occurred hundreds of millions of years ago have been pivotal for our ability to mentally time travel. We discuss how the... (More)
- Tulving’s introduction of episodic memory and the metaphor of mental time travel has immensely enriched our understanding of human cognition. However, his focus on human psychology, with limited consideration of evolutionary perspectives, led to the entrenched notion that mental time travel is uniquely human. We contend that adopting a phylogenetic perspective offers a deeper insight into cognition, revealing it as a continuous evolutionary process. Adherence to the uniqueness of pre-defined psychological concepts obstructs a more complete understanding. We offer a concise natural history to elucidate how events that occurred hundreds of millions of years ago have been pivotal for our ability to mentally time travel. We discuss how the human brain, utilizing parts with ancient origins in a networked manner, enables mental time travel. This underscores that episodic memories and mental time travel are not isolated mental constructs but integral to our perception and representation of the world. We conclude by examining recent evidence of neuroanatomical correlates found only in great apes, which show great variability, indicating the ongoing evolution of mental time travel in humans. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/a1f6cdf8-ede2-42ad-bb55-575bfec4cb99
- author
- Osvath, Mathias
LU
and Johansson, Mikael
LU
- organization
- publishing date
- 2024-09-16
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- mental time travel, cognitive evolution, deep time cognition, episodic memory
- in
- Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
- volume
- 379
- issue
- 1913
- publisher
- Royal Society Publishing
- external identifiers
-
- pmid:39278257
- scopus:85204167617
- ISSN
- 1471-2970
- DOI
- 10.1098/rstb.2023.0402
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- a1f6cdf8-ede2-42ad-bb55-575bfec4cb99
- date added to LUP
- 2024-08-21 10:51:33
- date last changed
- 2025-04-04 15:25:10
@article{a1f6cdf8-ede2-42ad-bb55-575bfec4cb99,
abstract = {{Tulving’s introduction of episodic memory and the metaphor of mental time travel has immensely enriched our understanding of human cognition. However, his focus on human psychology, with limited consideration of evolutionary perspectives, led to the entrenched notion that mental time travel is uniquely human. We contend that adopting a phylogenetic perspective offers a deeper insight into cognition, revealing it as a continuous evolutionary process. Adherence to the uniqueness of pre-defined psychological concepts obstructs a more complete understanding. We offer a concise natural history to elucidate how events that occurred hundreds of millions of years ago have been pivotal for our ability to mentally time travel. We discuss how the human brain, utilizing parts with ancient origins in a networked manner, enables mental time travel. This underscores that episodic memories and mental time travel are not isolated mental constructs but integral to our perception and representation of the world. We conclude by examining recent evidence of neuroanatomical correlates found only in great apes, which show great variability, indicating the ongoing evolution of mental time travel in humans.}},
author = {{Osvath, Mathias and Johansson, Mikael}},
issn = {{1471-2970}},
keywords = {{mental time travel; cognitive evolution; deep time cognition; episodic memory}},
language = {{eng}},
month = {{09}},
number = {{1913}},
publisher = {{Royal Society Publishing}},
series = {{Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences}},
title = {{A short natural history of mental time travels: a journey still travelled?}},
url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2023.0402}},
doi = {{10.1098/rstb.2023.0402}},
volume = {{379}},
year = {{2024}},
}