Infants form memories earlier than previously believed

A new study has found that infants remember more than previously thought. While people often forget memories from early childhood due to a phenomenon called infantile amnesia, this research suggests that babies do form memories. The study, led by Nick Turk-Browne, a psychology professor at Yale, analyzed how young children process memories. He noted that children become skilled learners around their first birthday but often have no recollection of these experiences. This raises questions about why these memories are hard to recall later in life. Traditionally, some theories suggested that early memories are repressed. However, scientists now think this has more to do with the hippocampus, a part of the brain responsible for memory, which is not fully developed in infants. Previous studies on rodents have shown similar patterns, indicating that memories form in the infant hippocampus but can fade over time. Finding ways to study infant memories has been challenging. Babies tend to move a lot, making it hard to capture clear brain scans. To tackle this, the research team used various techniques, including engaging infants with toys and patterns to keep them still. In total, 26 infants participated in the study. Researchers showed them different images and later tested their memory by presenting familiar images alongside new ones. They found that older infants, compared to those under one year, showed active brain responses when recalling memories. Though the study confirmed that infants can encode memories around their first birthday, the fate of these memories remains unclear. They might not be fully stored for the long term or could be forgotten but still exist in some form. Turk-Browne is currently exploring whether young children can recognize videos from their past experiences. Early findings hint that these memories might last until the child is around three years old before fading away. Turk-Browne hopes to understand if these memories can be reactivated later in life.