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← Glossary

Mental time travel

The capacity to mentally project yourself into a past or future episode — closely tied to episodic memory and imagery.

Endel Tulving proposed that what makes episodic memory distinct from semantic memory is the sense of re-experiencing, or "autonoetic consciousness" — mental time travel back into the event.

This is the capacity most clearly diminished in SDAM, and it is usually paired with a reduced ability to project forward into imagined future events as well. Remembering and imagining share circuitry.