Science Weekly Where do our early childhood memories go?
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Mar 25, 2025 Nick Turk-Browne, a Yale psychology and neuroscience professor, delves into the enigma of infantile amnesia—our inability to recall early childhood memories. He explores the role of the hippocampus in memory formation and discusses groundbreaking fMRI research on how infants begin to form episodic memories. Turk-Browne considers the implications of language and self-awareness in memory development, revealing how this phenomenon shapes our identities and challenges traditional views of early memory retention.
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Nick's First Memory
- Nick Turk-Browne's earliest memory is cutting his foot at a splash park.
- This aligns with typical first memories forming around ages four to seven.
Infantile Amnesia
- The lack of memories before ages four to seven is called infantile amnesia.
- Freud, the father of psychotherapy, was one of the first to describe it.
Episodic Memory
- Babies learn vast amounts of information, like language, motor skills, and social cues.
- However, they lack episodic memory, which is memory for specific events.