Why don't we remember childhood memories? A scientific reason has emerged.

 

Why don't we remember childhood memories? A scientific reason has emerged.

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Have you ever felt like a childhood memory is coming back to you? Like the feeling of lying in a crib or the taste of the cake from your first birthday? If so, there is a good chance those memories are not real. According to scientists, most people are unable to recall personal memories from their early years of life. However, new research has found evidence that children begin to form memories while also understanding the world around them, and this process starts much earlier than previously thought.

 

According to Al Jazeera TV, a recent study published in the journal "Science" by researchers from Yale and Columbia Universities has discovered that 12-month-old infants may also be involved in the process of memory storage, and this process occurs in the part of the brain known as the hippocampus, which is also responsible for storing memories in adults.

This study examined the brains of 26 children aged between four and 25 months. These children were shown images of various faces and objects, and scientists used a special scan designed for infants to assess brain activity. Scientists believed that the type of memory that helps remember specific events and their contexts begins to form only after the age of 18 to 24 months. However, the findings of this research have proven that this process can start even before the age of 12 months, with some evidence found in even younger children. It was also discovered that children begin to form limited types of memories at two to three months of age, which include unconscious memories and the ability to learn patterns that help recognize language, faces, and everyday routines. However, the complete development of the hippocampus is essential for maintaining these specific memories over time, which is completed gradually.

According to Christina Maria Alberini, a professor of neural science at New York University, the development of the hippocampus's ability to create and store memories in childhood may be a "critical" stage. This has significant implications not only for memory but also for mental health and other brain disorders.

 

Generally, the human brain does not retain early childhood memories for a long time, which explains why we forget them as we grow up. In an ongoing study being conducted at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development in Germany, it was found that 20-month-old children can remember a specific toy and its location for six months, while younger children retain this memory for only one month.

 

This phenomenon, where people are unable to remember experiences from their early life, is called "infantile amnesia." Scientists believed this might be due to children's brains not being mature enough to store such memories. However, this new research has proven that children do indeed create memories, but the big question is why those memories fade over time.

One hypothesis is that new neurons are rapidly produced in children's brains, a process known as neurogenesis. This rapid development can erase or overwrite old memories. In a study conducted on animals, when scientists reduced the rapid creation of neurons in mice, their early memories were preserved for a longer time, resembling the memory of adult mice.

 

Another hypothesis is that language and self-recognition are necessary for retaining specific memories, which are not fully developed until the ages of three to four. Since the brain lacks the complete resources to organize and retrieve memories before this age, early memories do not remain accessible in later life.

 

Some experts believe that forgetting memories could also be evolutionarily advantageous, as it helps the brain acquire general knowledge, such as principles for understanding the world, without getting entangled in unnecessary details.

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