What Do Our Eyes Remember?
Exploring the mystery of memory and the connection between our eyes, brain, and body
Have you ever wondered where a memory is stored? What makes some memories stay with us for a lifetime while others seem to fade away?
How might our eyes participate in the complexity of how we recall the world and relate to our daily experiences?
We often think of our eyes as the way we see the world around us. Yet what if our eyes also participate in how we remember it?
Following the Eyes into Memory
Researchers have discovered something fascinating about the relationship between our eyes and memory.
In an early study, people looked at visual patterns and then imagined those same patterns while researchers tracked their eyes. Surprisingly, their eyes moved in ways resembling how they had originally looked at the images.
Think about that for a moment. The picture was no longer there, yet their eyes appeared to be revisiting it. Researchers sometimes refer to this phenomenon as looking at nothing. Our eyes may return to places where something once appeared, even when there is nothing there to see.
Other studies suggest that our eyes may partially retrace their original movements, known as scanpaths, when recalling visual information. These patterns can play a role in retrieving certain kinds of visual and spatial memories.
Could the direction of our gaze help us find our way back to an experience? Are our eyes participating in reconstructing something from the past? And what about memories that carry strong emotions?
When Memories Emerge Unexpectedly
Memories and realizations can emerge in unexpected ways during psychotherapy.
Sometimes a memory surfaces as a brief glimpse, something a person has not thought about for years. They may wonder, “Why am I remembering this now? Where did that come from?”
I think of one client whose gaze kept drifting toward the same spot. At first, it seemed like nothing more than a place their eyes liked to rest. As they gently moved toward that spot and then back to a place of ease, again and again, something began to come into focus.
They began to associate that direction with an accident they had experienced, one they had not been able to recall until that moment. Little by little, sensory memories emerged. Over the weeks that followed, the daily headaches they had been living with began to ease.
What was happening in those moments?
Other times, rather than an image or story, sensations move through the body. Occasionally, the body moves almost as though replaying an experience. Peter Levine, in Waking the Tiger, explores how trauma may involve interrupted defensive responses and how bodily movement may participate in their resolution.
Sometimes, when we begin with the body’s experience rather than the story, unexpected words or phrases emerge. A realization takes shape, and the client says, “I never thought of that before.”
How did that thought find its way into awareness? What was happening between the sensations, emotions, memories, and emerging words?
Where My Curiosity Has Led Me
Over the years, these questions about the eyes and memory became more than intellectual curiosity. They shaped my work, whether I was practicing Brainspotting or Core Energetics.
Once you begin noticing people’s eyes as they speak, and even how your own eyes float around and land in a certain direction as you talk, you too may become very curious.
Research suggests that eye movements participate not only in remembering but also in imagining experiences that have not yet happened. In a 2022 study, Gautier and colleagues found that when people were instructed to keep their eyes fixed while imagining future events, their images were less vivid and contained fewer spatial and temporal details.
Isn’t it fascinating that how we direct our eyes might influence how we imagine our future?
As I developed Harmonic Brain Healing® (HBH), my curiosity deepened about the relationship between our eyes, memories, and how we might shift our relationship to the past. In HBH, where we place our gaze is one of the ways we explore that relationship.
We explore not only what happened, but how it has affected us and what we prefer to live with going forward.
The process continues to bring surprises, inviting curiosity about how memory, imagery, and bodily responses may work together.
The Mystery Continues
Neuroscience has taught us that memory is not simply a recording stored in one location in the brain. Remembering involves networks of activity, and our senses, emotions, and bodily responses may all participate in how we reconstruct experiences.
Yet what does it really mean to say that a memory is stored? Is remembering a matter of retrieving something preserved, or reconstructing an experience through connections that continue to change over time?
These discoveries do not fully explain why a long-forgotten experience suddenly comes to mind, why sensations emerge during therapy, or how new realizations take shape. Perhaps one of the most fascinating aspects of studying the brain is discovering how much we still don’t know.
The next time you find yourself remembering something, notice where your eyes go. Do they move in a particular direction? Do they pause? What happens in your body as the memory emerges?
Perhaps the mystery is not only what our eyes help us remember, but how our lived experiences continue to influence the way we see ourselves and the world around us.
Explore It in Person
If these questions spark your curiosity, I would love to explore them together.
On Friday, October 23, I’m offering a Harmonic Brain Healing® training at Link Counseling Center in Sandy Springs, with the option to join online.
The training is open to mental health clinicians from a variety of therapeutic backgrounds. No prior Brainspotting training is required.
10:00 AM–5:30 PM Eastern | 6.25 CE credits | $200
Learn more and register: Harmonic Brain Healing October 23, 2026 – Online and Atlanta, Georgia – Cynthasis
Research and Further Reading
- Brandt, S. A., & Stark, L. W. (1997). Spontaneous eye movements during visual imagery reflect the content of the visual scene. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience.
- Laeng, B., & Teodorescu, D.-S. (2002). Eye scanpaths during visual imagery reenact those of perception of the same visual scene. Cognitive Science.
- Johansson, R., & Johansson, M. (2014). Look here, eye movements play a functional role in memory retrieval. Psychological Science.
- Bochynska, A., & Laeng, B. (2015). Tracking down the path of memory: Eye scanpaths facilitate retrieval of visuospatial information. Cognitive Processing.
- Johansson et al. (2022). Eye movement replay supports episodic remembering. Proceedings of the Royal Society B.
- Gautier et al. (2022). Look at the future: Maintained fixation impoverishes future thinking. Consciousness and Cognition.
- Levine, P. A. (1997). Waking the Tiger: Healing Trauma.
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