Embodied memories: Reviewing the role of the body in memory processes

Abstract

This review aims at exploring the role of the body and its sensorimotor processes in memory. Recent theories have suggested that memories can profitably be seen as mental simulations consisting in the reactivation of sensorimotor patterns originally associated with events at encoding, rather than amodal mental representations. The sensorimotor model of memory (SMM) claims that the body is the medium where (and through which) sensorimotor modalities actually simulate the somatosensory components of remembered events, and predicts that memory processes can be manipulated through manipulation of the body. The review analyzes experimental evidence in favor of the SMM and the claim that the body is at stake in memory processes. The review then highlights how, at the current state of research, the majority of this evidence concerns the effect of body manipulations on memory processes rather than memory representations. It considers the need for a more circumstantial outline of the actual extent to which the body is capable of affecting memory, specifically on some important areas still unexplored, such as the sense of recollection. Resulting strengths and limitations of the SMM are discussed in relation to the more general debate on the embodied cognition.

Mental representation of autobiographical memories along the sagittal mental timeline: Evidence from spatiotemporal interference

“…Finding that they were more accurate and faster in the compatible than in the non-compatible condition suggests that autobiographical memories may be organized according to a sagittal MTL. These findings are overall consistent with theoretical accounts positing a strong influence of real-world sensorimotor experience on cognition in general, and specifically on memory processes (see Ianì, 2019, for a review), further suggesting that the temporal organization of autobiographical memory may also arise from this kind of sensorimotor experience.…”

Beyond action observation: Neurobehavioral mechanisms of memory for visually perceived bodies and actions

“…These studies support the idea that our sensorimotor system, the neural circuitry allowing us to move and feel our body, supports the encoding, retention, and recall of visually perceived bodily stimuli (e.g., actions). In this framework, it is worth noticing that while the current work covers the memory processing of bodily stimuli, there is compelling evidence showing that mnemonic traces of other types of stimuli/information also are dependent of the body (Casasanto and Dijkstra, 2010;Riva, 2018;Ianì, 2019). Memories do not unfold in a vacuum, but are at least partly, reenactments of the original bodily and somatic state, which are recalled via sensorimotor simulations.…”

Observer’s body posture affects processing of other humans’ actions

“…Given the mutual influence between perception and action (Hamilton, Wolpert, & Frith 2004), an implied consequence is that the observers' body postures or movements should facilitate or interfere with the brain processes underlying mental simulation (see, for a review, Ianì, 2019). Such body manipulations have already been used successfully to study sensorimotor simulations in domains different from action observation.…”

“…Since the tasks in both Experiments 1 and 2 were relatively easy, we tested our predictions in terms of reaction times rather than accuracy. Also, several studies in the literature that used secondary body-related task detected effects of body manipulations just in terms of reaction times, as body manipulations seem to affect cognitive processes rather than mental representations (Ianì, 2019).…”