Summary: New research challenges the idea that infants cannot form memories, showing that babies as young as 12 months old can encode experiences. Using fMRI scans, researchers found that the hippocampus, a brain region critical for memory, is active in infants during a memory task.
These findings suggest that infantile amnesia—the inability to remember early childhood—may be due to retrieval failures rather than an inability to form memories. While humans cannot recall events from their first few years of life, evidence shows that early memories may persist but remain inaccessible.
Key Facts:
- Early Memory Formation: Babies as young as 12 months can encode individual experiences.
- Infantile Amnesia Cause: Memory retrieval failures, not memory formation, may explain early childhood amnesia.
- Hippocampus Activation: fMRI scans confirm that the hippocampus is active during infant memory tasks.
