Summary: Recalling events from a third-person or observer perspective engages different brain systems than remembering from a first-person point of view. Using an observer perspective increases interaction between the anterior hippocampus and the posterior medial network during memory retrieval.
Source: University of Alberta
Recalling the past from an observer point of view recruits different brain networks than remembering from your own eyes, according to new research.
“Our perspective when we remember changes which brain regions support memory and how these brain regions interact together,” said Peggy St. Jacques, assistant professor in the Department of Psychology and co-author of the study.
The study shows that when people reconstruct events from an observer-like vantage—imagining themselves from outside their body or viewing a scene as if watching a recording—the anterior hippocampus interacts more strongly with the brain’s posterior medial network than when memories are recalled from the original first-person viewpoint.
“These findings add to growing evidence that memory retrieval is an active, constructive process that can bias or alter how we remember past events,” St. Jacques added.
Adopting an observer perspective appears to require greater coordination among brain regions responsible for reconstructing sensory details and building mental images. In other words, viewing the past at a distance demands additional neural communication to recreate the visual and contextual elements of an experience.
Beyond its scientific implications, the perspective shift may have practical value. St. Jacques explained that deliberately adopting an observer viewpoint could help people manage distressing memories. “Viewing a memory from a distance can reduce the emotional intensity tied to the event and may be a useful strategy in therapeutic settings,” she said.
This research builds on earlier work by St. Jacques and colleagues showing that visual perspective during recollection can shape how memories are later remembered and reported. The current study advances understanding by mapping how perspective affects the timing and pattern of hippocampal–neocortical interactions during retrieval.
The lead author of the study is Heather Iriye, an alumna of the Faculty of Science who completed this research as part of her PhD at the University of Sussex. Iriye is now a postdoctoral fellow at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden.
About this memory research
Source:
University of Alberta
Contacts:
Craig Brierley – University of Alberta
Image source:
The image is in the public domain.
Original research: Closed access. Cited study: “How visual perspective influences the spatiotemporal dynamics of autobiographical memory retrieval” by Heather Iriye and Peggy L. St. Jacques, published in Cortex.
Abstract
How visual perspective influences the spatiotemporal dynamics of autobiographical memory retrieval
Visual perspective—whether memories are recalled from one’s own eyes (first-person) or from an observer viewpoint—is a fundamental feature of autobiographical memory. However, how that perspective alters the brain mechanisms supporting retrieval has been unclear. Using multivariate analyses, the researchers characterized the spatiotemporal dynamics of neural networks engaged when people retrieved memories from both typical (own-eyes) and atypical (observer) perspectives.
Both first-person and observer perspectives activated a common autobiographical memory retrieval network, including the hippocampus, midline cortical regions, lateral frontal areas, and posterior cortices, with peak activation during later stages of retrieval. Notably, this network was less strongly recruited during observer-perspective recall. Functional connectivity analyses seeded in the anterior hippocampus showed that perspective influenced both the strength and timing of neural interactions: retrieving memories from atypical observer perspectives increased early connectivity between the hippocampus and a posterior medial network, while first-person retrieval produced stronger later connectivity within medial temporal lobe structures and the ventromedial prefrontal cortex. These results indicate that visual perspective is an important factor in how neocortical systems guide memory reconstruction, and that first-person and observer perspectives correspond to distinct hippocampal–neocortical interaction patterns during recollection.
Overall, the findings highlight that the vantage point we adopt when remembering shapes not just subjective experience but the underlying neural choreography of memory retrieval, with potential relevance for clinical approaches that aim to modify emotional responses to past events.