Mental time travel: continuities and discontinuities

Over 15 years ago, Michael Corballis and I first discussed the evolution of the human capacity to travel mentally in time [1]. Extensive research has since aimed to demonstrate similar nonhuman animal capacities [2], but Corballis and I have repeatedly found the evidence wanting [3,4]. It is hence noteworthy that, in light of new neuroscientific data [5,6], Corballis is now questioning whether mental time travel is uniquely human [7]. Here, I outline reasons why I think the evidence fails to show that animals travel mentally in time as humans do.

[1]  Michael Balter,et al.  Evolution of behavior. Did working memory spark creative culture? , 2010, Science.

[2]  T. Suddendorf,et al.  Children's capacity to remember a novel problem and to secure its future solution. , 2011, Developmental science.

[3]  M. Corballis,et al.  Behavioural evidence for mental time travel in nonhuman animals , 2010, Behavioural Brain Research.

[4]  Asohan Amarasingham,et al.  Internally Generated Cell Assembly Sequences in the Rat Hippocampus , 2008, Science.

[5]  R. Corbey,et al.  Crows and jays [Review of the books The Accidental Species: Misunderstandings of Human Evolution, H. Gee, 2013, and The Gap: The Science of What Separates Us from Other Animals, T. Suddendorf, 2013] , 2014 .

[6]  Andrew M. Wikenheiser,et al.  Hippocampal sequences link past, present, and future , 2012, Trends in Cognitive Sciences.

[7]  Noam Chomsky,et al.  Biolinguistic Explorations: Design, Development, Evolution , 2007 .

[8]  M. Corballis,et al.  Mental time travel and the evolution of the human mind. , 1997, Genetic, social, and general psychology monographs.

[9]  G. Buzsáki,et al.  Cell Assembly Sequences Arising from Spike Threshold Adaptation Keep Track of Time in the Hippocampus , 2011, The Journal of Neuroscience.

[10]  Michael C. Corballis,et al.  Mental time travel: a case for evolutionary continuity , 2013, Trends in Cognitive Sciences.

[11]  Matthijs A. A. van der Meer,et al.  Hippocampal Replay Is Not a Simple Function of Experience , 2010, Neuron.

[12]  W. Roberts,et al.  The comparative study of mental time travel , 2009, Trends in Cognitive Sciences.

[13]  People,et al.  The Clever Hans Phenomenon: Communication With Horses, Whales, Apes, and People , 1981 .

[14]  M. Corballis,et al.  The evolution of foresight: What is mental time travel, and is it unique to humans? , 2007, The Behavioral and brain sciences.