The role of bodily self-consciousness in episodic memory of naturalistic events: an immersive virtual reality study

Abstract

Recent studies suggest that the human body plays a critical role in episodic memory. Still, the precise relationship between bodily self-consciousness (BSC) and memory formation of specific events, especially in real-life contexts, remains a topic of ongoing research. The present study investigated the relationship between BSC and episodic memory (EM) using immersive virtual reality (VR) technology. Participants were immersed in an urban environment with naturalistic events, while their visuomotor feedback was manipulated in three within-subjects conditions: Synchronous, Asynchronous, and No-body. Our results show that asynchronous visuomotor feedback and not seeing one’s body, compared to synchronous feedback, decrease the sense of self-identification, self-location and agency, and sense of presence. Moreover, navigating in the Asynchronous condition had a detrimental impact on incidental event memory, perceptual details, contextual association, subjective sense of remembering, and memory consolidation. In contrast, participants in the No-Body condition were only impaired in egocentric spatial memory and the sense of remembering at ten-day delay. We discuss these findings in relation to the role of bodily self-representation in space during event memory encoding. This study sheds light on the complex interplay between BSC, sense of presence, and episodic memory processes, and strengthens the potential of embodiment and VR technology in studying and enhancing human cognition.

Self-portrait of a Stranger: Self-face Representation and Interoception in Depersonalization Experiences

“…It is notable that these anomalous experiences referred to in the questionnaire are mostly focused on personal autobiographical memories of specific spatiotemporal episodes, which we already know hold an important link with the bodily self, including bodily self-consciousness (e.g. Penaud et al, 2023). In contrast, self-face representations are thought not to depend on one specific facial image and encoding episode, but rather be more generic representations across episodes and viewpoints, and thus can be considered more likely to be mediated by the semantic long-term memory system, as the "visual knowledge" of a known face (e.g.…”

“…The association between DP and atypical memory experiences is also supported by a more general causal relationship between bodily self-consciousness and memory processing in healthy individuals (see Bréchet, 2022 for review). Memory retrieval has been shown to be impaired when first-person perspective and body ownership are disrupted during encoding, for example via experimentally induced multisensory illusions ((see Bergouignan, Nyberg, & Ehrsson, 2014;Gauthier et al, 2020;Penaud, Yeh, Gaston-Bellegarde, & Piolino, 2023). Furthermore, common brain structures have been identified as key both for the retrieval of personal self-related episodic memories and for the conscious experience of the world from a first-person perspective, such as the bilateral angular gyrus (Bréchet, Grivaz, Gauthier, & Blanke, 2018).…”

Autonomic and cognitive control in memory: Investigating the psychophysiological link using heart rate variability biofeedback

“…According to psychophysiological models relying on the body-brain interaction, bodily states and processes are associated with cognitive functioning (Critchley et al, 2013). In this light, embodied approaches to cognition emphasize the role of the interacting body in cognition (Hommel, 2004;Varela et al, 2017;Versace et al, 2014), also concerning memory functions (Bréchet, 2022;Ianì, 2019;Penaud et al, 2023;Tuena et al, 2019). The role of the body in cognition encompasses not only sensorimotor aspects but also physiological variables reflecting autonomic nervous system (ANS) activity, which is now recognized to play an important role in cognition (Critchley, 2009;Critchley et al, 2013;Damasio et al, 1997).…”