As noted by Hassabis, Kumaran, Maguire (2007), the pattern of activation specific to autobiographical memory resembles
the network found to support EFT (e.g., Addis, Wong, & Schacter, 2007). One may, therefore, argue that recalling past experiences
and thinking about plausible, autobiographical future events share the same key, defining processes. Indeed, when
individuals remember past or simulate future events, they imaginatively place themselves into specific settings that are temporal
in nature (settings that pertain to their past and to their future). Furthermore, when envisioning events that will occur
in the future, especially in the near future, individuals imagine themselves in the context of familiar settings (e.g., Gamboz,
Brandimonte, & De Vito, 2010). This is not to say that familiarity of setting is a defining feature of EFT, as it is for autobiographical
memory. We can indeed pre-experience an event expected to occur somewhere we have never been before and,
still, scene construction is surely not restricted to events represented in unfamiliar settings. However, empirical evidence
indicates that familiarity of setting is indeed an important modulator of the characteristics of EFT