Why we can't remember being babies: Scientists unveil infant memory formation

For years, scientists have wondered why we can’t remember our earliest years. Is it simply because babies' brains are too immature, or is there something more to it?

New groundbreaking research suggests that babies are indeed capable of forming memories much earlier than once believed. But the big question remains: why do these memories seem to vanish as we grow older?

In an exciting study published in Science this month, researchers from Yale and Columbia universities have shown, for the first time, that infants as young as 12 months can form memories in real time. This discovery opens a new chapter in understanding memory development and could explain why we fail to recall our infant years.

The study focused on tracking brain activity in babies using a specially adapted brain scan designed for infants. The 26 infants, aged four to 25 months, were shown images of faces and objects. The researchers found that when a baby’s hippocampus – the part of the brain that stores memories – was more active the first time they saw a particular image, the baby would spend more time looking at the image when it reappeared. This suggests the baby recognised it.

“Our results suggest that babies’ brains have the capacity for forming memories – but how long-lasting these memories are is still an open question,” said Tristan Yates, a postdoctoral research scientist at Columbia University and lead author of the study.

For decades, memory studies on babies relied on indirect observations like tracking reactions to familiar stimuli. But this study marks the first time scientists have directly observed brain activity linked to memory formation in awake babies.

While babies may begin forming memories as early as a few months old, the study suggests that episodic memory – the type of memory that allows us to recall specific events and the contexts in which they occurred – takes longer to develop. Previous research had believed that episodic memory started developing only after the first year of life. But this new finding pushes that timeline back, revealing that some memory development begins much earlier.

Cristina Maria Alberini, professor of neural science at New York University, explained, “The period in infancy when the hippocampus is developing its ability to form and store memories may be ‘critical.’ This window could be important not only for memory but also has great implications for mental health and cognitive disorders.”

Despite this exciting discovery, the phenomenon of “infantile amnesia” – the inability to recall personal experiences from before the age of three – still remains a mystery. Scientists believe that rapid neurogenesis in infants, the creation of new neurons, may disrupt or overwrite memories. Animal studies have shown that slowing neurogenesis allows memories to last longer.

Another theory suggests that episodic memory requires language and a sense of self – both of which don’t fully develop until the age of three or four. Without these tools, babies' brains may not be able to organise or retrieve memories in the way adults do.

There’s also the hypothesis that forgetting early experiences serves a developmental purpose. By shedding specific memories, the brain may focus on building general knowledge, helping infants understand the world around them without the distraction of irrelevant details.

Some claim to remember their infancy, but researchers have found that these “memories” are often fabrications. According to Yates, such recollections are typically the result of “source misattribution,” where people confuse actual memories with information from photos or family stories.

While it remains uncertain whether early memories can ever be fully retrieved in adulthood, Yates believes there’s potential. “Preliminary evidence from other research at Yale suggests that early life memories may be recalled in early childhood, but not later childhood,” she said. This raises the intriguing possibility that while early memories might be inaccessible to adults, they may still exist in some form in the brain.

In ongoing studies, Yale researchers are filming babies and toddlers from their perspective, using devices like head-mounted cameras. As the children grow, the researchers will show them the videos to see if they can recognise the experiences, giving further insight into how long these early memories last and how they form.

In conclusion, this new research shows that babies are more aware and capable of forming memories than previously believed. However, why we cannot remember those first experiences may be more complex than we’ve imagined. The mystery of why these memories fade as we age continues, but it is clear that understanding memory in infancy could hold significant implications for mental health and cognitive development in later life.

By Aghakazim Guliyev