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. 2025 Mar 4;51(Suppl 2):S194-S204.
doi: 10.1093/schbul/sbad183.

Personal Goal-Related Mental Time Travel and Its Association With Resting-State Functional Connectivity in Individuals With High Schizotypal Traits

Jun-Yan Ye  1   2 , Xiao-Jing Qin  1   2   3 , Ji-Fang Cui  4 , Jia-Li Liu  1   2 , Hai-Song Shi  5 , Tian-Xiao Yang  1   2 , Ya Wang  1   2   6 , Raymond C K Chan  1   2
Affiliations

Personal Goal-Related Mental Time Travel and Its Association With Resting-State Functional Connectivity in Individuals With High Schizotypal Traits

Jun-Yan Ye et al. Schizophr Bull. .

Abstract

Background and hypothesis: Mental time travel (MTT) is a crucial ability for daily life. Personal goal-related MTT events has stronger phenomenological characteristics than personal goal-unrelated ones, ie, the "personal goal-advantage effect". However, it remains unclear whether this effect is impacted in individuals with high schizotypal traits (HST) and the neural correlates of this effect have yet to be elucidated. The present study aimed to fill these knowledge gaps. We hypothesized that HST would show a reduced "personal goal-advantage effect" in MTT and would exhibit altered relationships with resting-state functional connectivity.

Study design: In Study 1, 37 HST and 40 individuals with low schizotypal traits (LST) were recruited. Participants generated MTT events with personal goal-related and personal goal-unrelated cues. In Study 2, 39 HST and 38 LST were recruited, they completed the same behavioral task and resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scanning.

Study results: Both Study 1 and Study 2 revealed that HST exhibited reduced "personal goal-advantage effect" on MTT specificity. Moreover, Study 2 showed that compared with LST, HST exhibited altered association between the "personal goal-advantage effect" and functional connectivity (ie, between the right precuneus and the left postcentral gyrus and "personal goal-advantage effect" on emotional valence, between the left hippocampus and the right temporal fusiform gyrus and "personal goal-advantage effect" on emotional intensity).

Conclusions: These findings suggest that HST exhibit a reduced "personal goal-advantage effect" in MTT specificity and altered neural correlates related to this effect. The "personal goal-advantage effect" may be a potential target for intervention in HST.

Keywords: mental time travel; neural; personal goal-advantage effect; schizotypal.

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Conflict of interest statement

None.

Figures

Fig. 1.
Fig. 1.
Procedure of personal goal mental time travel task.
Fig. 2.
Fig. 2.
Significant group difference of the relationship between personal goal-advantage effect on MTT and functional connectivity. DPG_MTT_Valence = The "personal goal-advantage effect" on emotional valence; DPG_MTT_Intensity =The "personal goal-advantage effect" on emotional intensity; rsFC = resting-state functional connectivity; HIP = hippocampus. (A) Non-significant correlation between the functional connectivity of the right precuneus and the left postcentral gyrus with personal goal-advantage effect on emotional valence in LST, but this correlation was positive in HST. (B) The negative correlation between the functional connectivity of the left hippocampus and the right temporal fusiform gyrus with personal goal-advantage effect on emotional intensity in LST, but this correlation was positive in HST. Threshold: cluster-level FWE adjusted P < .05, cluster size >20 (voxel-level uncorrected P < .005), multiple comparison correction PFWEcorrection = .005.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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