The Human Brain And It's Ability To Time-Travel

In this article, we review neuroscientific evidence for the continuity of mental time travel into the past and future.

We go on to suggest that human language may have evolved primarily for the communication of episodes, whether from the past or the future. We conclude with some speculation as to when and why mental time travel evolved in hominin evolution.

Episodic memory shares a core neural network with the simulation of future episodes, enabling mental time travel into both the past and the future.

The evolution of the capacity to simulate possible future events, based on episodic memory, enhanced fitness by enabling action in preparation of different possible scenarios that increased present or future survival and reproduction chances.

Human language may have evolved in the first instance for the sharing of past and planned future events, and, indeed, fictional ones, further enhancing fitness in social settings.

References:

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