title: Eye movements during mental time travel follow a diagonal line.
abstract: Recent research showed that past events are associated with the back and left side, whereas future events are associated with the front and right side of space. These spatial-temporal associations have an impact on our sensorimotor system: thinking about one's past and future leads to subtle body sways in the sagittal dimension of space (Miles, Nind, & Macrae, 2010). In this study we investigated whether mental time travel leads to sensorimotor correlates in the horizontal dimension of space. Participants were asked to mentally displace themselves into the past or future while measuring their spontaneous eye movements on a blank screen. Eye gaze was directed more rightward and upward when thinking about the future than when thinking about the past. Our results provide further insight into the spatial nature of temporal thoughts, and show that not only body, but also eye movements follow a (diagonal) "time line" during mental time travel.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Bern, Fabrikstrasse 8, CH-3012 Bern, Switzerland; Division of Cognitive Sciences, University of Potsdam, Germany. Electronic address: hartmann.psychology@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Matthias
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hartmann
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Bern, Fabrikstrasse 8, CH-3012 Bern, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Corinna S
authors.initials: CS
authors.lastname: Martarelli
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Bern, Fabrikstrasse 8, CH-3012 Bern, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Fred W
authors.initials: FW
authors.lastname: Mast
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Zurich, Binzmühlestrasse 14/25, CH-8050 Zürich, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Kurt
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Stocker
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D005133:Eye Movements / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D013850:Thinking / Q000502:physiology*; D013995:Time; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Embodied cognition; Eye movements; Future; Mental number line; Mental time line; Mental time travel; Metaphors; Past; Spatial–temporal association