Beyond action observation: neurobehavioral mechanisms of memory for visually perceived bodies and actions

Examining the processing of others’ body-related information in the perceivers’ brain (action observation) is a key topic in cognitive neuroscience. However, what happens beyond the perceptual stage, when the body is not within view and it is transformed into an associative form that can be stored, updated, and later recalled, remains poorly understood. Here we examine neurobehavioural evidence on the memory processing of visually perceived bodily stimuli (dynamic actions and images of bodies). The reviewed studies indicate that encoding and maintaining bodily stimuli in memory recruits the sensorimotor system. This process arises when bodily stimuli are either recalled through action recognition or reproduction. Interestingly, the memory capacity for these stimuli is rather limited: only 2 or 3 bodily stimuli can be simultaneously held in memory. Moreover, this process is disrupted by increasing concurrent bodily operations; i.e., moving one’s body, seeing or memorising additional bodies. Overall, the evidence suggests that the neural circuitry allowing us to move and feel ourselves supports the encoding, retention, and memory recall of others’ visually perceived bodies.