Investigating behavioural and neural interactions between autobiographical memory and bodily self-consciousness

Autobiographical memories (AM) are memories of previous experiences of one’s self, therefore it seems likely that AM and self-representations interact in the brain. However, the interaction between AM and bodily self-consciousness (BSC; the implicit, non-conceptual and pre-reflective representation of our body) is underinvestigated. The current thesis comprises of 4 studies which investigated if there are any behavioural and neural interactions between AM and BSC. Study 1 (chapter 2) investigated whether there is an interaction between BSC and AM by reviewing previously published evidence. Studies 2 and 3 (chapters 3 and 4) investigated whether body ownership (a key component of BSC) for a child-like face or body facilitates the recollection of childhood AM. Study 4 (chapter 5) investigated whether stimulation of the left ventral premotor cortex (vPMC) impacts body ownership for a child’s body and its interaction with childhood AM.

A systematic literature review was conducted for study 1. Enfacement illusion (study 2) and virtual reality based full body illusions (studies 3 and 4) were implemented to induce a sense of ownership for a child-like face or body. In study 4, the left vPMC was stimulated by anodal transcranial direct current stimulation and its impact on body ownership for a child’s body was compared with sham stimulation (no left vPMC modulation).

Evidence from study 1 is suggestive of an interaction between BSC and AM. In studies 2 and 3, body ownership for a child-like face or body was associated with greater recollection of childhood episodic AM details. In study 4, body ownership scores and childhood AM scores did not differ between left vPMC stimulation group and sham stimulation group. However, following left vPMC stimulation, body ownership for a child’s body was found to be a significant predictor of childhood episodic AM recollection details.

To conclude, the evidence from the studies in this thesis suggests the presence of an interaction between BSC and AM. It is argued that that bodily information and episodic information together contributes to the construction of memory traces and, in turn, AM. Furthermore, the left vPMC arguably contributes to the neural substrate for the interaction between BSC and AM.