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Updated: Jan 21, 2026

Molecular Evolution of the Tre Recombinase
Published on: May 29, 2008
Fellow travellers in cognitive evolution: Co-evolution of working memory and mental time travel?
Dorothea Dere1, Armin Zlomuzica1, Ekrem Dere2
1University of Bochum, Faculty of Psychology, Behavioral and Clinical Neuroscience, Bochum, Germany.
Abstract:
Humans spend the lion's share of their mental life either in their personal past or an anticipated or imagined future. This type of mental state is known as mental time travel. It is perhaps the most sophisticated and fitness-promoting cognition that has evolved in humans and with some reservation in animals. We have proposed that working memory capacity and the complexity of executive functions within working memory might limit the authenticity with which past events are reconstructed and anticipated or imagined future scenarios are constructed. In the present article, we discuss the possibility of a co-evolution between working memory capacity, complexity of executive functions available in the working memory workspace, and mental time travel abilities across species. We further assume that a complex working memory system can be constructed with quite different brains and conclude that the advanced cognitive function of thinking about the past and the future might not be a privilege of the mammalian brain.
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