Advances in Mental Time Travel Research in Adolescent Depression: A Narrative Review

Adolescent depression is a serious public health issue affecting the mental health and quality of life of adolescents worldwide. Mental time travel (MTT), an individual's capacity to recall the past or look to the future, plays an important role in emotion regulation and mental health. Following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines, a systematic literature search was conducted. Due to considerable heterogeneity among the included studies, a narrative synthesis approach was adopted. A total of 22 articles retrieved from PubMed, Web of Science, PsycINFO, and EBSCO (up to October 31, 2024) were included to elucidate the mechanisms underlying MTT impairments and related interventions in depressed adolescents. The main findings indicated that depressed adolescents exhibit overgeneralization of autobiographical memories, impoverished future simulations, and negative bias in MTT constructs. Neuroimaging studies have revealed aberrant activation within the autobiographical memory network, hyperengagement of the self-referential network during MTT tasks, and alterations in emotion regulation circuits. Furthermore, the efficacy of cognitive therapy and memory/imagery-specific training in ameliorating temporal cognitive biases and fostering positive future expectations was demonstrated. These findings underscore the importance of examining adolescent depression through the lens of MTT, offering a promising framework for understanding its cognitive and neural mechanisms and the development of novel intervention strategies.