Techniques ( Miles 1893 Henri and Henri 1895 Howe and Courage 1993 Nelson 1993 Peterson 2002 Wang 2003 Bauer 2006, 2007). This anecdotal evidence has been validated by over a century of empirical research, conducted across cultures using different Of their first years of life (before 6–8 yr of age) ( Freud 1900, 1914). In infants and children is due to high levels of postnatal neurogenesis in the hippocampus.Īdults have difficulty recalling memories of early childhood, even though very young children are capable of forming memoriesįreud developed his theory of infantile amnesia based on the observation that his adult patients rarely recalled memories Here, we outline a novel neurobiological hypothesis of infantile (or childhood) amnesia that proposes that the loss of memory How can these seemingly disparate observations be reconciled? The seemingly exuberant learning capacity of young children. What is particularly intriguing about this phenomenon is that adults have very few memories of early childhood despite Life, was named infantile amnesia by Sigmund Freud over 100 yr ago ( Freud 1900, 1914). This phenomenon, in which adults are unable to remember specific events from our first few years of But if she is like the rest of us, she will not explicitly remember the “birthday candle incident” Too, at least for a day or two (the next day, she exclaimed “no candles” while shaking her head vigorously).

Our daughter remembered parts of this event,

Our memories, and we can vividly recall many details of the not-so-happy birthday. When we dimmed the lights and lit the candles, the birthday girl burst into tears. To celebrate this milestone, we threw a party withĪll the trimmings (Elmo birthday cards, presents, sparkly birthday hats, and a chocolate cake topped with two pink candles). We are the proud parents of a little girl who just turned 2 yr of age. The ability to form enduring memories, most likely by replacing synaptic connections in preexisting hippocampal memory circuits. We propose that high neurogenesis levels negatively regulate To the emergence of the ability to form stable long-term memory. Interestingly, the decline of postnatal neurogenesis levels corresponds Neurogenesis and an inability to form lasting memories. Infants (humans, nonhuman primates, and rodents) exhibit high levels of hippocampal We propose a hypothesis of infantile amnesia that focuses on one specific aspect of postnatal brain development-the continuedĪddition of new neurons to the hippocampus. Yet they do not clearly specify which particular aspects of brain maturation are causally related to infantile amnesia. That protracted postnatal development of key brain regions important for memory interferes with stable long-term memory storage, Biological explanations of infantile amnesia suggest That this phenomenon cannot be explained fully in purely human terms. Theory of mind, and/or sense of “self.” However, the finding that experimental animals also show infantile amnesia suggests The ability to maintain detailed, declarative-like memories in the long term correlates with the development of language, Psychological/cognitive theories assert that The mechanisms underlying this form of amnesia are the subject of much debate. Of early childhood despite the seemingly exuberant learning capacity of young children. Although universally observed, infantile amnesia is a paradox adults have surprisingly few memories In the late 19th Century, Sigmund Freud described the phenomenon in which people are unable to recall events from early childhoodĪs infantile amnesia.

Infantile amnesia refers to