http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1580364,00.html This is an article from Time Magazine on time travel (The humor of this sentence does not escape me btw). It appears that there are sections of the brain that only come alive when we are doing nothing. These sections, known as the dark network, in the article allow us to remember the past or day dream about the future.
It's an intriguing idea, but it's mostly presented as an automatic function, something we do without really realizing it. The article isn't very clear on the neuroscience behind it, but that's hardly surprising, given that's its a popular magazine.
I have written, in Space/Time Magic about daydreaming the future, using day dreams to specifically created visualized futures and then bring thsoe futures into the present when you are snappedo ut of the day dream, but I seem some potential expansion on that, even though this article is rather vague, as well as some expansion on retroactive magic when it comes to changing the past via memory.