Science Weekly Summer picks: Where do our early childhood memories go?
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Aug 7, 2025 In this engaging discussion, Nick Turk-Browne, a Yale psychology and neuroscience professor, dives into the fascinating puzzle of early childhood memories, particularly infantile amnesia. He explores why we often can't recall our earliest experiences and highlights the crucial role of the hippocampus in memory formation. Turk-Browne also offers insights on how the developing brain influences memory storage and retrieval, suggesting that early memories may significantly shape our identities and future experiences.
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Nick's Earliest Memory
- Nick Turk-Browne's earliest memory is from age seven when he injured his foot at a splash park.
- He knows this memory is real because he has a scar from that incident.
Understanding Infantile Amnesia
- Infantile amnesia refers to the lack of memories from before ages three or four.
- Freud first described this phenomenon over 100 years ago, though his repression theory is now unpopular.
Babies Learn But Don't Remember Events
- Babies learn language, social skills, and concepts but do not form episodic memories of specific events.
- Episodic memory stores contextual details of events, explaining our lack of early life memories.