Subjective feeling of re‐experiencing past events using immersive virtual reality prevents a loss of episodic memory

Lucie Bréchet, Sebastien B. Hausmann, Robin Mange, Bruno Herbelin, Olaf Blanke, Andrea Serino
2020 Brain and Behavior  
Personally meaningful past episodes, defined as episodic memories (EM), are subjectively re-experienced from the natural perspective and location of one's own body, as described by bodily self-consciousness (BSC). Neurobiological mechanisms of memory consolidation suggest how initially irrelevant episodes may be remembered, if related information makes them gain importance later in time, leading for instance, to a retroactive memory strengthening in humans. Using an immersive virtual reality
more » ... tem, we were able to directly manipulate the presence or absence of one's body, which seems to prevent a loss of initially irrelevant, self-unrelated past events. Our findings provide an evidence that personally meaningful memories of our past are not fixed, but may be strengthened by later events, and that body-related integration is important for the successful recall of episodic memories.
doi:10.1002/brb3.1571 pmid:32342631 fatcat:77uioyjp3besndmet4fgbgebde