Why our earliest memories fade
Image credit: lukemichael via Unsplash
A new study published in the journal Science offers new insight into why most people can’t recall their earliest years. It’s not that those early memories don’t exist, rather the brain loses the ability to access them later in life. Researchers found that infants are capable of forming and encoding specific memories, challenging the long-held belief that early memories simply don’t form. Instead, the study suggests that “infantile amnesia” may be less about memory loss and more about retrieval.
Source
Tristan S. Yates et al. ,Hippocampal encoding of memories in human infants.Science387,1316-1320(2025).DOI:10.1126/science.adt7570
Additional Reading
https://www.cnn.com/2025/03/20/health/baby-infants-memories-hippocampus-wellness/index.html
https://news.yale.edu/2025/03/20/why-dont-we-remember-being-baby-new-study-provides-clues