Hippocampal Contribution to Ordinal Psychological Time in the Human Brain
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Hippocampal Contribution to Ordinal Psychological Time in the Human Brain Baptiste Gauthier1, Pooja Prabhu2, Karunakar A. Kotegar2, and Virginie van Wassenhove3 Abstract ■ The chronology of events in time–space is naturally available arrow of time… Over time: A sequence of brain activity map- to the senses, and the spatial and temporal dimensions of ping imagined events in time and space. Cerebral Cortex, 29, events entangle in episodic memory when navigating the real 4398–4414, 2019]. Because of the limitations of source recon- world. The mapping of time–space during navigation in both struction algorithms in the previous study, the implication of animals and humans implicates the hippocampal formation. hippocampus proper could not be explored. Here, we used a Yet, one arguably unique human trait is the capacity to imagine source reconstruction method accounting explicitly for the hip- mental chronologies that have not been experienced but may pocampal volume to characterize the involvement of deep involve real events—the foundation of causal reasoning. structures belonging to the hippocampal formation (bilateral Herein, we asked whether the hippocampal formation is in- hippocampi [hippocampi proper], entorhinal cortices, and volved in mental navigation in time (and space), which requires parahippocampal cortex). We found selective involvement of internal manipulations of events in time and space from an ego- the medial temporal lobes (MTLs) with a notable lateralization centric perspective. To address this question, we reanalyzed a of the main effects: Whereas temporal ordinality engaged mostly magnetoencephalography data set collected while participants the left MTL, spatial ordinality engaged mostly the right MTL. self-projected in time or in space and ordered historical events We discuss the possibility of a top–down control of activity in as occurring before/after or west/east of the mental self the human hippocampal formation during mental time (and [Gauthier, B., Pestke, K., & van Wassenhove, V. Building the space) travels. ■ INTRODUCTION In Western cultures, the closest concept to an allo- By analogy to the ways the brain represents space, the centric representation of time is the idea of “mental time- representation of memory has been hypothesized to rely lines”; such concept uses a spatial metaphor as a pervasive on the coexistence of allocentric (landmark-based) and means to make sense of time (Bonato, Zorzi, & Umiltà, egocentric (self-based) coordinate systems (Buzsáki & 2012; Boroditsky, 2000; Bergson, 1922). From a computa- Moser, 2013). Whereas an egocentric representation of tional perspective, the metaphor of mental timeline con- temporal memories intimately engages the concept of veniently captures the necessity for the representation of self (Arzy & Schacter, 2019), the basis for an allocentric an ordinal sequence of events in time, that is, the neces- representation of time may be more difficult to concep- sity of a 1-D and oriented code for the past-to-future chro- tualize. One possibility is that, just as the mental repre- nology of events (whether experienced in real-time, sentation of space capitalizes on allocentric maps to remembered retrospectively, or imagined prospectively). make sense of the recurring updating of sensory informa- Hence, by analogy to the “geocentric” spatial cognitive tion, the enduring representations of events in time may maps representing space in allocentric coordinates temporally frame one’s immediate, but also past and fu- (Wang & Spelke, 2002), the “chronocentric” representa- ture, experiences. A core question is thus whether differ- tions of events in time should code for the past-to-future ent coordinate systems may coexist to represent time in orientation of time. the human brain and whether we can investigate their ex- The study of temporal order as a specific feature of (se- istence in a prelinguistic form (Gallistel, 2002). rial) memory has provided many insights on the involved neuroanatomical structures. For instance, in episodic memory, the retrieval of temporal order involves hippo- This article is part of a Special Focus deriving from a symposium campal regions that are distinct from those involved in at the 2019 annual meeting of Cognitive Neuroscience Society, entitled, “Mental Models of Time.” the retrieval of the spatial associations of previously en- 1Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, 2Manipal Institute countered items (Ekstrom, Copara, Isham, Wang, & of Technology, Manipal Academy of Higher Education, 3CEA, Yonelinas, 2011). In addition to the reported implication INSERM, Cognitive Neuroimaging Unit, Université Paris-Sud, of pFCs (Ekstrom et al., 2011), distinct connectivity pat- Université Paris-Saclay, NeuroSpin, 91191 Gif/Yvette, France terns between hippocampus and neocortex have also © 2020 Massachusetts Institute of Technology Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience 32:11, pp. 2071–2086 https://doi.org/10.1162/jocn_a_01586 Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/jocn_a_01586 by guest on 28 September 2021 been described (Watrous, Deuker, Fell, & Axmacher, could be relative to the temporal locus of the projected 2015; Schedlbauer, Copara, Watrous, & Ekstrom, 2014; self with a flexible use of temporal representations. Since Watrous & Ekstrom, 2014), again reporting separate hip- this seminal work, we extended these findings to ordinal pocampal regions for temporal processing (Copara et al., judgmentsofhistoricaleventsintimeaswellastotheir 2014). The order of events and their temporal distances spatial dimension (Gauthier & van Wassenhove, 2016a): (i.e., the elapsed episodic time experienced between two In this series of experiments, participants self-projected events) in various tasks entailing path integration or re- in space (west or east of their physical location) or in membering have systematically implicated medial tempo- time (past or future) or mentally stayed in the here ral lobes (MTL; Clewett, DuBrow, & Davachi, 2019; and now. After self-projection (or absence thereof), Deuker, Bellmund, Schröder, & Doeller, 2016b; Jenkins participants were asked to estimate whether a learned & Ranganath, 2016; Nielson, Smith, Sreekumar, Dennis, historical event occurred before or after (time), or east & Sederberg, 2015; Jenkins & Ranganath, 2010). In the or west (space), of their mental location. Relative and current state of research, the hippocampus thus appears absolute distance effects were observed in both the a reasonable candidate for the representation of mental temporal and spatial dimensions of the task. timelines. Navigating time with autobiographical and historical The spatial and temporal dimensions of episodic events recruited hippocampal, medial temporal, and pos- events can be reconstructed a posteriori, that is, by men- terior parietal regions during temporal self-projection tal manipulation during or after memory retrieval. (Gauthier et al., 2019; Gauthier & van Wassenhove, Retrieval engages a core network of neocortical regions 2016b; Arzy, Collette, Ionta, Fornari, & Blanke, 2009). (Peer, Salomon, Goldberg, Blanke, & Arzy, 2015; This was consistent with most fMRI work looking at the Ekstrom & Bookheimer, 2007), which are distinct for past-to-future distinction and showing the involvement of the temporal and spatial dimensions, although they com- large networks encompassing the MTL and parietal, dor- monly engage the hippocampal formation (Schedlbauer solateral, and medial pFCs Gauthier & van Wassenhove, et al., 2014; Watrous & Ekstrom, 2014). This pattern 2016b; Viard, Chételat, et al., 2011; Botzung, Denkova, & has been observed for the mapping of nonepisodic time, Manning, 2008; Okuda et al., 2003). In addition, struc- in a study requiring participants to overtly judge the order tures of the cortical midline such as the medial prefrontal of events with respect to different positions on their mental and parietal regions have been reported as core regions timelines (Gauthier, Pestke, & van Wassenhove, 2019; for the representation of self and have been tightly linked Gauthier & van Wassenhove, 2016b). Hence, mental time- to self-projection (Northoff, 2016; Northoff et al., 2006; lines may enable the flexible remapping of events on internal Northoff & Bermpohl, 2004). temporal coordinate systems, or temporal cognitive maps, In this context, we wished to investigate the role of thereby enabling mental time travel, an arguably unique hippocampal activity in mental time (and space) travels. human ability (Suddendorf, Addis, & Corballis, 2009; For this, we capitalized on the magnetoencephalography Suddendorf & Corballis, 2007; although see Clayton, (MEG) data set collected while participants self-projected 1998). Last, the ability to navigate mental time may rely in time or in space and ordered historical events as oc- on the integrity of the hippocampus (Buckner, 2010). curring before/after or west/east of the mental self To empirically test mental time travel in humans, Arzy, (Gauthier et al., 2019). The MEG activity revealed the in- Adi-Japha, and Blanke (2009) devised a task in which volvement of both medial temporal and neocortical re- participants were asked to mentally project themselves gions with distinct sequential activity supporting the away from the now, either a few years in the past or in predicted cognitive operations implicated in this mental the future. This mental operation was referred to as self- time and space travel task (Gauthier et al., 2019). projection, which is the ability to represent