Childhood amnesia: why don't we remember when we were babies?

Surely many times you have asked yourself these questions: When do we begin to have memories of what we have lived? Why don't we remember the first years of life? How can a young child remember things that happened yesterday but then have no memories of that day a couple of years later?

It is believed that memory does not begin until we are approximately three years old, this curious phenomenon of not remembering the above, is called child amnesia. New research delves into the scientific arguments of why don't we remember when we were babies.

The study, conducted with rodents, concludes that the large number of neurons that form in the first years of life, a process known as "neurogenesis", when produced in still small brains "ruin" the processes responsible for generating memories.

In other words, the size of a young child's brain is still limited to the process of generating new cells and storing memories at the same time, so that prioritize, wisely, the first.

In Xataka, your "first memories" are likely to be false: yes, those that you remember so intensely too

Neurogenesis in mammals occurs throughout life, but in babies of some species, including humans, it occurs at a much higher rate. This process is particularly active in the hippocampus, part of the brain that deals with memories and learning.

Extremely high rates of neurogenesis observed in very small brains can increase forgetfulness. These new neurons could displace the old circuits that have memories.

As the child's brain grows, these two processes adjust until a balance between the production of new neurons and memories is achieved. Thus, around three years (some before, others after) the child's brain begins to keep experiences in the memory drawer.

Baby mice able to remember

The study was carried out in mice, because it has a brain structure similar to that of humans. How they did it? First, the scientists generated memories in the mice creating an association between a place and a soft electrical discharge. Then the neurogenesis rates of the animals were adjusted and they saw what happened with those memories later.

By boosting neurogenesis in adult mice, they observed that they had more difficulty remembering things. On the contrary, by stopping neurogenesis in baby mice, that is, stopping the birth of new neurons, they were able to remember. They eliminated child amnesia.

They also experimented with two other rodent species that are more mature than the mice at birth: the guinea pig and the degú, a Chilean animal, both with lower rates of neurogenesis. These species do not usually experience childhood amnesia, but when researchers artificially increased the rates of neurogenesis in young guinea pigs and degú, they could not hold on to memories.

We do not remember, but the experiences are marked

According to Freud, childhood amnesia is a mechanism that helps repress traumatic memories of the first years of life, which can be a theory that is perfectly compatible with what scientists currently explain to us.

Anyway, although we do not keep memories of the experiences we have in the first years of life because the priority of the infant brain is neurogenesis, I am convinced that although it cannot be remembered, what was experienced by a human being in the prenatal period and during the first years of life is registered in our unconscious and decisively influences our way of being.

In Babies and more Take advantage now that they are small: your children will be children only once

This is what we want to convey from Babies and more: although they cannot remember images, there is a deep emotional mark through the experiences we provide them. The way we treat our babies since they are in the womb, the upbringing we give them based on love, respect, pampering, arms, always attending to their needs, making early childhood as happy as we can, the best that we get out ... That, no doubt, is marked on fire although they can't remember it.