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research article

Bodily perception links memory and self: A case study of an amnesic patient

Meyer, Nathalie H.  
•
Babo-Rebelo, Mariana  
•
Potheegadoo, Jevita  
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October 1, 2025
Cortex

Episodic autobiographical memory (EAM) is a building block of self-consciousness, involving recollection and subjective re-experiencing of personal past experiences. Any life episode is originally encoded by a subject within a body. This raises the possibility that memory encoding is shaped by bodily self-consciousness (BSC), a basic form of self-consciousness arising from the multisensory and sensorimotor perceptual signals from the body. Recent studies in healthy subjects showed that embodied encoding improves EAM, with the involvement of the hippocampus. However, there are only few imaging studies to date, hippocampal data are not consistent, and the role of hippocampal damage is not understood. We investigated how different BSC states during encoding, modulate later EAM retrieval, in a patient with severe amnesia caused by rare bilateral hippocampal damage. We performed three separate behavioral experiments using immersive virtual reality. The patient showed consistently more difficulties recollecting information encoded in embodied versus disembodied states, particularly when asked to recall her perspective experienced at encoding. These results contrasted with the usual beneficial effect of BSC on EAM, and significantly differed from controls. These data provide consistent evidence that BSC impacts encoding and later reliving, and shows that the hippocampus is not just a critical structure for EAM, but also for effects of embodiment on memory. Additional fMRI data extend these findings by revealing that hippocampal-parietal connectivity mediates BSC-EAM coupling. Our findings plead for an important role of BSC in EAM, mediated by the hippocampus and its connectivity, leading to embodied memories that are experienced as belonging to the self.

  • Details
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Type
research article
DOI
10.1016/j.cortex.2025.07.015
Scopus ID

2-s2.0-105014729270

Author(s)
Meyer, Nathalie H.  

École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne

Babo-Rebelo, Mariana  

École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne

Potheegadoo, Jevita  

École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne

Duong Phan Thanh, Lea

École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne

Boscheron, Juliette  

École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne

Herbelin, Bruno  

École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne

Vuarnesson, Loup  

École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne

Stampacchia, Sara  

École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne

Toye, Iris M.  

École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne

Esposito, Fabienne

SUVA

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Date Issued

2025-10-01

Published in
Cortex
Volume

191

Start page

245

End page

265

Subjects

Amnesia

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Bodily self-consciousness

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Episodic memory

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Hippocampal atrophy

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Single case report

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Virtual reality

Editorial or Peer reviewed

REVIEWED

Written at

EPFL

EPFL units
LNCO  
UPHUMMEL  
FunderFunding(s)Grant NumberGrant URL

FSE+

CARIGEST

Fondazione Teofilo Rossi di Montelera e di Premuda

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Available on Infoscience
September 15, 2025
Use this identifier to reference this record
https://infoscience.epfl.ch/handle/20.500.14299/253993
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