Often parents We help our children build their first memories: those related to the experiences they lived when they were babies. It is the little ones who ask us for small details, and they are also the ones who (as happens to my daughter) state that they remember experiences after two years, while they do not remember what happened before.
We can invent explanations that help us understand 'why this happens', but What do we know about memory? Personally I have been able to learn a little more about how memories influence children's behavior or emotions, it has been reading 'The child's brain' that we have presented here. And now I want to talk about a study that Dr. Frankland (University of Toronto / SickKids Hospital) has recently presented, and on the basis of which he states that the rapid development of the hippocampus during the first years of life, may be responsible for that kind of 'amnesia'. The hippocampus is one of the main structures of that organ so complex that it is the brain. Its main functions are the 'recording' of experiences, and their reproduction through indicators They help us recover them. Apparently, the development of new neurons while we are babies consumes a lot of energy, which inhibits the function of 'reproduction'.
The process of formation of new neurons in the hippocampus is called neurogenesis, about it we know that its peak is reached before and after birth, while during childhood and adulthood it decreases
The motivation of P.W. Frankland to develop this research has been trying to prove that the intense development of the hippocampus causes an inability to remember facts or experiences from our first years of life. This specialist was inspired by his daughter, observing that months after performing important family activities, the girl did not remember them.
Dr. Eric Kaendel, of the Kavli Institute for Brain Science at Columbia University, admits that Frankland's reasoning is reasonable, in fact in the scientific community it is often believed that the hippocampus may have to do with 'this mystery'.
This theory offers a very interesting clue: 'Clearly memories are stored, but it is very likely that when they belong to our baby stage, the hippocampus cannot do anything to find where they are'. Thus, very young children can remember recent things, but not events in the medium to long term, and over time we still can't remember. Another thing is that parents help children know details, but in any case, it is not an act of natural 'reproduction', but rather of a 'construction'.
And precisely about the role of parents, says David Haley (professor of child psychology at the University of Toronto), that we should not banal experiences in the early years, or strip them of their importance for memory. This is because memories with a marked emotional component that will have weight in the development of our children.
Haley warns that the tests developed by Frankland have a lot to do with spatial memory, but not with other types of memory.
The research also explains that the hippocampus transfers data to the cerebral cortex while we sleep, and that the bark has an important role in the elaboration of long-term memories.
Images | Johnathan Nightingale, Professional Development for Creative People Via | BBC News Health More information | Sick Kids In Peques and More | The dream helps children to transform learning into active knowledge. Childhood memories are built from small details.
