The mystery of baby memories

[WORLD] Have you ever wondered why your earliest memories usually start around age three or four, leaving your baby years a total blank? For decades, scientists believed that babies’ brains simply weren’t developed enough to form memories. But groundbreaking new research is rewriting this story—revealing that even infants can create and store memories, though accessing them as adults remains a mystery. In this explainer, we’ll unpack what science now knows about infant memory, how it shapes development, and what it means for parents and curious minds alike.

Infantile amnesia—also called childhood amnesia—describes the near-universal inability of adults to recall specific events from the first few years of life, typically before age three or four. For most people, autobiographical memory only becomes stable around age five or six, though some can remember fragments from earlier.

For years, the prevailing theory was that the hippocampus—the brain’s memory center—was too immature in infancy to encode and store long-term memories. But recent studies have turned this idea on its head.

How Do Babies Form Memories?

The Role of the Hippocampus

The hippocampus is a small, seahorse-shaped structure deep in the brain that plays a central role in forming and retrieving memories. In adults, it’s essential for episodic memory—the ability to remember specific events, times, and places.

New research using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) has shown that even in babies as young as four months, the hippocampus is active during memory formation. In a landmark study, Yale researchers showed infants images of faces, objects, and scenes while monitoring their brain activity. After a short delay, babies were shown the same images alongside new ones. Infants who had greater hippocampal activity when first seeing an image were more likely to look at it longer when it reappeared—a sign of recognition and memory.

“When babies have seen something just once before, we expect them to look at it more when they see it again,” explains Nick Turk-Browne, professor of psychology at Yale. “So in this task, if an infant stares at the previously seen image more than the new one next to it, that can be interpreted as the baby recognizing it as familiar.”

Memory Encoding vs. Recall

While babies can encode memories—meaning their brains can record and store new information—they struggle to retrieve these memories as adults. This suggests that infantile amnesia is less about an inability to form memories and more about problems with accessing or recalling them later in life.

Analogy: Think of a baby’s memory like a library where books are constantly being added, but the catalog system isn’t fully developed. The books (memories) are there, but finding them again as an adult is difficult because the indexing system (the brain’s retrieval mechanisms) is still maturing.

What Kinds of Memories Do Babies Form?

Babies form several types of memories, which can be broadly divided into two categories:

Implicit memory: Unconscious memories, such as procedural skills (how to move, suck, or grasp) and emotional responses. These memories are present from birth and are crucial for survival and early learning.

Explicit (declarative) memory: Conscious memories of facts and events. While these are less robust in infancy, research shows that even very young babies can remember specific events for short periods, especially if the context is familiar.

Example: In classic experiments, three-month-old babies remembered how to move a mobile by kicking, but only if the context (like the color or shape of the mobile) was the same as during the original learning. This demonstrates that infant memory is highly context-dependent.

How Do Researchers Study Baby Memory?

Studying memory in infants is notoriously challenging. Babies can’t talk, follow complex instructions, or stay still for long—making traditional memory tests difficult. To overcome this, researchers use creative methods:

Visual recognition tasks: Babies are shown images and later tested on their ability to recognize them, often by measuring how long they look at familiar versus new images.

Deferred imitation: Babies watch an adult perform an action (like shaking a rattle) and are later given the chance to imitate it, demonstrating memory for the action.

fMRI with awake infants: Advanced imaging techniques allow scientists to observe brain activity in real time as babies form and retrieve memories.

Why Does Early Memory Matter?

Early memories, even if not consciously recalled, form the foundation for a child’s emotional, social, and cognitive development. The quality of early experiences—especially how caregivers respond to a baby’s needs—shapes their sense of safety, trust, and ability to form relationships throughout life.

What This Means for Parents

Responsive caregiving: Quickly and lovingly responding to a baby’s needs helps them feel secure and builds the foundation for healthy emotional development.

Routines and rituals: Consistent routines (like bedtime rituals) help babies predict what comes next, reinforcing a sense of safety and stability.

Emotional regulation: Babies learn to regulate their emotions by observing how caregivers handle stress and frustration.

Expert Insight:

“While babies do not remember events in the sense that adults do, they are profoundly shaped by their early experiences,” says Marilyn Cross Coleman, LCSW, PMH-C. “Parents should concentrate on the emotional experience of their infants.”

FAQ and Myth-Busting

Q: Do babies remember anything from their first year?

A: Yes! Babies can form memories from as early as a few months old, but these memories are usually implicit (unconscious) or short-term explicit memories. They may not remember specific events as adults, but their brains are recording and learning from their experiences.

Q: Why can’t we remember being babies?

A: The inability to recall early memories—infantile amnesia—is likely due to problems with memory retrieval, not memory formation. The brain’s systems for storing and accessing memories are still developing in infancy, making it hard to recall these events later.

Q: Can early experiences affect a person’s adult life?

A: Absolutely. Early experiences, especially those involving caregivers, shape emotional and social development, influencing how people form relationships and handle stress throughout life.

Myth: Babies’ brains are too immature to form any memories.

Fact: Modern research shows that even very young babies can form and store memories, though they may not be able to recall them as adults.

Why This Matters

Understanding how and why babies form memories—and why we can’t recall those early years—offers more than just fascinating science. It highlights the profound impact of early experiences on lifelong development. For parents and caregivers, it’s a reminder that every interaction, every moment of comfort, and every routine shapes a child’s brain and emotional world, even if those memories fade from conscious recall.

For curious professionals and investors, this research underscores the importance of early childhood interventions and the long-term value of nurturing environments. In a world where outcomes are increasingly linked to early experiences, recognizing the hidden power of infant memory can inform everything from parenting practices to public policy.

Ultimately, the science of infant memory reminds us that the foundations of who we are—and who we become—are laid down long before we can remember them ourselves. And that’s a story worth remembering.