Illusory ownership of one’s younger face facilitates access to childhood episodic autobiographical memories

Our autobiographical memories reflect our personal experiences at specific times in our lives. All life events are experienced while we inhabit our body, raising the question of whether a representation of our bodily self is inherent in our memories. Here we explored this possibility by investigating if the retrieval of childhood autobiographical memories would be influenced by a body illusion that gives participants the experience of ownership for a 'child version' of their own face. 50 neurologically healthy adults were tested in an online enfacement illusion study. Feelings of ownership and agency for the face were greater during conditions with visuo-motor synchrony than asynchronous conditions. Critically, participants who enfaced (embodied) their child-like face recollected more childhood episodic memory details than those who enfaced their adult face. No effects on autobiographical semantic memory recollection were found. This finding indicates that there is an interaction between the bodily self and autobiographical memory, showing that temporary changes to the representation and experience of the bodily self impacts access to memory.