TY  - JOUR
A1  - Hartmann, Matthias
A1  - Martarelli, Corinna S.
A1  - Mast, Fred W.
A1  - Stocker, Kurt
T1  - Eye movements during mental time travel follow a diagonal line
JF  - Consciousness and cognition
N2  - 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. (C) 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
KW  - Mental time travel
KW  - Eye movements
KW  - Mental time line
KW  - Spatial-temporal association
KW  - Future
KW  - Past
KW  - Embodied cognition
KW  - Metaphors
KW  - Mental number line
Y1  - 2014
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.concog.2014.09.007
SN  - 1053-8100
SN  - 1090-2376
VL  - 30
SP  - 201
EP  - 209
PB  - Elsevier
CY  - San Diego
ER  -