Past and Future: All in Your Head

Time Past, Time Future Intricately Connected In Brain

by Agence France-Presse • Posted January 2, 2007 11:24 AM

CHICAGO (AFP)—Our ability to daydream about our future is closely related to our ability to recall our past, and may even depend on it, according to a study which may explain a little-known quirk of the amnesiac's condition.

The findings come from a small study in which researchers compared the brain activity of volunteers as they alternately reminisced about past personal events such as a birthday, or getting lost, and then conjured up images of similar scenarios in the future.

The brain scans of the 21 students who took part in the experiment revealed "a surprisingly complete overlap" in the brain regions used for both processes, the researchers said.

"Our findings provide compelling support for the idea that memory and future thought are highly interrelated and help explain why future thought may be impossible without memories," said Karl Szpunar, lead author of the study and a doctoral student in psychology at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri.