The Hippocampus Links Episodic Memory and Bodily Awareness

Episodic autobiographical memory does not occur in isolation from the body: every remembered event was once encoded from a first-person perspective. Yet whether the hippocampus, long recognized as the canonical substrate of memory, also underpins the embodied self has remained unknown.

We combined structural T1-weighted MRI with behavioral assessments of episodic memory (Logical Memory delayed recall) and bodily awareness (ARSQ 2.0 Somatic Awareness subscale) in patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and healthy comparison groups to test whether hippocampal volume predicts both outcomes.

We show that hippocampal volume predicts not only episodic memory performance but also bodily awareness in patients with MCI. Hippocampal volume explained substantial variance in both domains, whereas a control region did not, underscoring regional specificity. This effect was paralleled by a reduction of hippocampal volume in MCI patients compared to older and younger adults. Notably, both high- and low-cognition older adults showed larger volumes than in MCI.

These findings provide the first structural evidence that hippocampal atrophy is associated with reductions in both remembering and embodiment, positioning the hippocampus as a key node linking memory and bodily selfhood. Beyond revealing a novel dimension of hippocampal vulnerability, this work suggests translational opportunities. These findings open the possibility that bodily awareness may prove useful as an early marker in future longitudinal studies of Alzheimer's disease.