Sun Mar 23 03:35:23 UTC 2025: **Babies Can Form Memories, But Retrieval Is the Problem: Study**
New Haven, CT – A groundbreaking study published in the journal *Science* is challenging long-held beliefs about infantile amnesia – the inability of adults to recall memories from their early childhood. Researchers at Yale University have used fMRI scans on awake infants to demonstrate that babies are capable of forming memories as early as one year old. However, the study suggests that the inability to recall these memories later in life is due to underdeveloped brain systems responsible for retrieving, not forming, memories.
The research involved 26 infants, half under one year old and half over, undergoing fMRI scans while performing memory tasks. A significant challenge was keeping the infants still during the scans. The research team overcame this by employing various strategies, including using pacifiers, blankets, stuffed animals, pillows, and engaging psychedelic background patterns. While some images were blurry, the hundreds of sessions conducted allowed the researchers to collect sufficient data.
By comparing brain activity during successful memory retrieval versus forgotten images, the scientists found that the hippocampus – a brain region crucial for episodic memory – is active in memory encoding even in infants. Babies who performed best on the memory tasks exhibited greater hippocampal activity. This suggests that the failure to retrieve memories, rather than a lack of initial encoding, is the primary cause of infantile amnesia.
“What we can conclude accurately from our study is that infants have the capacity to encode episodic memories in the hippocampus starting around one year of age,” explained Professor Nick Turk-Browne, senior author of the study and professor of psychology at Yale.
The researchers are now expanding their work to investigate whether older children can recognize video footage of themselves as babies. This further research aims to deepen understanding of the complex processes involved in memory formation and retrieval during early childhood development.
First Piper 