Briefly viewing a childlike version of one’s own face increased adults’ recall of childhood events in a study led by Anglia Ruskin University and published in Scientific Reports on October 9, 2025.
Researchers at Anglia Ruskin University (ARU) report that embodying a digital, younger-looking version of one’s own face led adults to recall more detailed childhood memories than a control condition. The peer-reviewed study appears in Scientific Reports (DOI: 10.1038/s41598-025-17963-6). (pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov)
The experiment involved 50 adult participants and used an “enfacement illusion,” in which a live video image of the participant’s face was altered with a childlike filter and moved in sync with their head movements to feel mirror-like. A control group viewed their unaltered adult faces under the same conditions. (aru.ac.uk)
After the illusion, participants completed an autobiographical memory interview prompting recollections from early childhood and from the previous year. Those who embodied a childlike face produced significantly more episodic details for childhood events than controls; effects did not extend to autobiographical semantic details. The authors describe this as the first evidence that changing bodily self-perception can influence access to remote autobiographical memories. (pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov)
Lead author Utkarsh Gupta, who conducted the work as an ARU PhD student and is now a postdoctoral research fellow in psychology at the University of North Dakota, said that memories are also “experiences of our body,” and that embodying a younger face may reintroduce cues that help retrieval. (campus.und.edu)
Senior author Professor Jane Aspell, who leads ARU’s Self & Body Lab, said, “When our childhood memories were formed, we had a different body,” adding that temporarily altering bodily experience can facilitate access to remote memories. (aru.ac.uk)
The paper notes key limitations: the accuracy of recollections was not independently verified, and some procedural factors (such as face similarity to one’s real childhood appearance) warrant closer control in future work. The authors suggest that more sophisticated body illusions might one day aid memory retrieval, including for people with memory impairments, though clinical applications remain speculative. (pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov)
Scientific Reports lists the article as published on October 9, 2025 (DOI: 10.1038/s41598-025-17963-6). ScienceDaily later highlighted the findings on November 3, 2025. (pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov)