Depressive symptoms are associated with a poor orientation toward the past during future self-projection

This study examines the relationship between depressive symptoms (DS) and mental time travel (MTT), focusing on individuals’ ability to orient and project themselves into past or future scenarios. Drawing on literature suggesting that depression disrupts prospection, we hypothesized that DS are primarily associated with alterations in future-related MTT. Forty-eight university students were divided into two groups based on the presence or absence of mild-to-severe DS. Participants were asked to judge whether various events were located in the past or future while mentally projecting themselves ten years into the past, in the present, or ten years into the future. Results showed that participants with DS were less accurate in judging the temporal location of past events when projecting themselves into the future, as compared with those without DS. This suggests that DS may reduce prospection by interfering with the ability to orient to the past when individuals need to represent themselves in possible futures. Clinical implications will be discussed on how focusing on future-related MTT may help counteract DS.