The Impact of Self-processing on Mental Time Travel

NCT06823193 | Recruiting

• 1 other identifier: ICS Maugeri CE 2717
• Study Type: interventional
• Target: 66
• Locations: 1 country
• Sites: 1

Brief Summary

Mental time travel (MTT) refers to the ability to project oneself backward into the past or forward into the future to envision past and future events. This study examines the role of the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) in orienting toward past and future events during MTT.

Conditions

Brain Injuries, Focal

Keywords

Mental Time Travel; Projection; Self/other distinction

Outcome Measures

Primary Outcomes (1)

• Likely Responses of events (Percentage)

  If the vmPFC plays a crucial role in MTT, by activating and orienting to general knowledge about common life events, then vmPFC patients' probability judgments (% Likely Responses) in the MTT task should not be modulated coherently as a function of the perceived age of the portrayed faces and the Past vs. Future Projection condition. Considering the prominent role played by the vmPFC in future-oriented cognition, we expect that deficits in MTT would be more marked in the Future compared to the Past Projection condition.

  At baseline

Secondary Outcomes (1)

• Temporal estimation of cultural prototypical life event (years)

  At baseline

Study Arms (3)

Healthy participants

ACTIVE COMPARATOR

All participants performed the MTT task, the Age estimation task and the Lifeline task.

Behavioral: Mental Time Travel task; Behavioral: Age Estimation control task; Behavioral: Lifeline task

vmPFC patients

EXPERIMENTAL

All participants performed the MTT task, the Age estimation task and the Lifeline task.

Behavioral: Mental Time Travel task; Behavioral: Age Estimation control task; Behavioral: Lifeline task

not-vmPFC patients

ACTIVE COMPARATOR

All participants performed the MTT task, the Age estimation task and the Lifeline task.

Behavioral: Mental Time Travel task; Behavioral: Age Estimation control task; Behavioral: Lifeline task

Interventions

Lifeline task BEHAVIORAL

In this task participants will be instructed to associated each event with the age at which they believe it typically occurred.

Healthy participants; not-vmPFC patients; vmPFC patients

Mental Time Travel task BEHAVIORAL

A psychophysical task (D'Angelo et al., 2023) will be adopted. In this task, a projection in time will be "induced" by faces of different ages. Face stimuli will be presented with a short sentence describing a particular life event, commonly occurring around 60. Participants will perform a two-alternative forced-choice task under two experimental conditions. In the "past projection" condition, they will indicate whether it is "likely" or "unlikely" that the person of the face shown could have experienced the indicated event 10 years earlier. In the "future projection," they will indicate whether it is "likely" or "unlikely" that the person depicted will experience the indicated event in 10 years.

Healthy participants; not-vmPFC patients; vmPFC patients

Age Estimation control task BEHAVIORAL

In this task participants will estimate the age of the faces adopted as stimuli.

Healthy participants; not-vmPFC patients; vmPFC patients

Eligibility Criteria

• Age: 40 Years - 80 Years
• Sex: all
• Healthy Volunteers: Yes
• Age Groups: Adult (18-64), Older Adult (65+)

You may qualify if:

• the absence of general cognitive impairment, assessed by neuropsychological testing

You may not qualify if:

• psychiatric disorders
• multiple brain lesions

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Istituti Clinici Scientifici Maugeri SpA: lead
• Centro Studi e Ricerche in Neuroscienze Cognitive (Cesena): collaborator

Study Sites (1)

Istituti Clinici Scientifici Maugeri

Castel Goffredo, Mantova, 46042, Italy

RECRUITING

Related Publications (10)

• Hutchinson JB, Uncapher MR, Wagner AD. Posterior parietal cortex and episodic retrieval: convergent and divergent effects of attention and memory. Learn Mem. 2009 May 23;16(6):343-56. doi: 10.1101/lm.919109. Print 2009 Jun.

  PMID: 19470649 BACKGROUND

• Bonato M, Saj A, Vuilleumier P. Hemispatial Neglect Shows That "Before" Is "Left". Neural Plast. 2016;2016:2716036. doi: 10.1155/2016/2716036. Epub 2016 May 29.

  PMID: 27313902 BACKGROUND

• Lou HC, Luber B, Crupain M, Keenan JP, Nowak M, Kjaer TW, Sackeim HA, Lisanby SH. Parietal cortex and representation of the mental Self. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2004 Apr 27;101(17):6827-32. doi: 10.1073/pnas.0400049101. Epub 2004 Apr 19.

  PMID: 15096584 BACKGROUND

• De Brigard F, Nathan Spreng R, Mitchell JP, Schacter DL. Neural activity associated with self, other, and object-based counterfactual thinking. Neuroimage. 2015 Apr 1;109:12-26. doi: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2014.12.075. Epub 2015 Jan 8.

  PMID: 25579447 BACKGROUND

• D'Argembeau A, Jedidi H, Balteau E, Bahri M, Phillips C, Salmon E. Valuing one's self: medial prefrontal involvement in epistemic and emotive investments in self-views. Cereb Cortex. 2012 Mar;22(3):659-67. doi: 10.1093/cercor/bhr144. Epub 2011 Jun 16.

  PMID: 21680845 BACKGROUND

• Schacter DL, Addis DR, Hassabis D, Martin VC, Spreng RN, Szpunar KK. The future of memory: remembering, imagining, and the brain. Neuron. 2012 Nov 21;76(4):677-94. doi: 10.1016/j.neuron.2012.11.001.

  PMID: 23177955 BACKGROUND

• Kaller CP, Rahm B, Spreer J, Weiller C, Unterrainer JM. Dissociable contributions of left and right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex in planning. Cereb Cortex. 2011 Feb;21(2):307-17. doi: 10.1093/cercor/bhq096. Epub 2010 Jun 3.

  PMID: 20522540 BACKGROUND

• Ciaramelli E, Anelli F, Frassinetti F. An asymmetry in past and future mental time travel following vmPFC damage. Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci. 2021 Mar 5;16(3):315-325. doi: 10.1093/scan/nsaa163.

  PMID: 33382070 BACKGROUND

• D'Argembeau A, Van der Linden M. Phenomenal characteristics associated with projecting oneself back into the past and forward into the future: influence of valence and temporal distance. Conscious Cogn. 2004 Dec;13(4):844-58. doi: 10.1016/j.concog.2004.07.007.

  PMID: 15522635 BACKGROUND

• D'Angelo M, Frassinetti F, Cappelletti M. The Role of Beta Oscillations in Mental Time Travel. Psychol Sci. 2023 Apr;34(4):490-500. doi: 10.1177/09567976221147259. Epub 2023 Feb 16.

  PMID: 37067986 BACKGROUND

MeSH Terms

Conditions

Brain Injuries

Condition Hierarchy (Ancestors)

Brain Diseases; Central Nervous System Diseases; Nervous System Diseases; Craniocerebral Trauma; Trauma, Nervous System; Wounds and Injuries

Study Officials

• Giuliana Vezzadini, MD

  Istituti Clinici Scientifici Maugeri

  PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

Central Study Contacts

Giuliana Vezzadini, MD

CONTACT

0376-7741; giuliana.vezzadini@icsmaugeri.it

Giulia Franco, Psy

CONTACT

0376-7741; giulia.franco@icsmaugeri.it

Study Design

• Study Type: interventional
• Phase: not applicable
• Allocation: NON RANDOMIZED
• Masking: NONE
• Purpose: BASIC SCIENCE
• Intervention Model: PARALLEL
• Sponsor Type: OTHER
• Responsible Party: SPONSOR

Model Details: Healthy Participants; vmPFC patients; not-vmPFC patients.

Study Record Dates

• First Submitted: January 27, 2025
• First Posted: February 12, 2025
• Study Start: December 1, 2024
• Primary Completion: June 30, 2026
• Study Completion: September 30, 2026
• Last Updated: February 23, 2026

Record last verified: 2026-02

Data Sharing

• IPD Sharing: Will not share

Locations

IT (1)