Scientists believe that by recreating the physical sensations associated with childhood, it is possible to reopen the path to long-dormant memories.
What if the recovery of our childhood memories depends not only on the brain, but also on our body and the sensations it feels?
It is from this idea that scientists from Anglia Ruskin University, led by the specialist in cognitive neuroscience from the University of North Dakota, Utkarsh Guptaare using artificial intelligence (AI) to reactivate long-inaccessible memories.
An investigation into Nature Scientific Reports details an experiment with 50 adults, who were shown, on a screen, a child’s face created by AI based on their own physiognomy.
The technology replicated the participants’ movements and expressions in real time, generating an optical illusion of facial distortion — an effect that made the volunteers perceive the child’s face as their own and awakened a feeling of physical and emotional recognition.
After the experience, participants were asked to recall episodes from their childhood. Those who had seen his childhood version remembered many more details of his experiences than the control group, who only saw their own face as an adult.
This is because the brain stores information about the body together with memories, the study author. By reintroducing bodily signals similar to those of the past, the brain becomes better able to retrieve old memories.
The research team believes that the discovery could help to better understand , a phenomenon that prevents people from remembering events before the age of three. The study suggests that by recreating the physical sensations associated with childhood, it is possible to reopen the path to long-dormant memories.
The researchers also point to the therapeutic potential of this technique. The integration of bodily illusions and AI in clinical contexts could serve as the basis for new approaches to treating memory disorders and cognitive decline.
Recreating childhood environments, such as the house or room where you grew up, are doors that virtual reality is opening more and more to show us what we have already experienced, but don’t remember.
