Personal Goal-Related Mental Time Travel and Its Association With Resting-State Functional Connectivity in...

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.

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.

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).

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.