One trait shared by all humans is that they don’t remember specific life episodes that occurred before the age of 3 or 4. Many scientists have attributed this so-called “infantile amnesia” to a lack of development in the hippocampus, an area of the brain located in the temporal lobe that is crucial to encoding memory.
However, a new brain imaging study by Yale scientists shows that infants as young as three months are already enlisting the hippocampus to recognize and learn patterns. The findings were published May 21 in the journal Current Biology.
“A fundamental mystery about human nature is that we remember almost nothing from birth through early childhood, yet we learn so much critical information during that time — our first language, how to walk, objects and foods, and social bonds,” said Nick Turk-Browne, a professor of psychology at Yale and senior author of the paper.
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