Scientists may finally have the answer to why it is impossible to recall early childhood memories.
Do you have a vivid memory on how life was when you were just a year old? Most likely not. It is biologically impossible for the majority of people to retain memories over the first two to four years of human life -- memories formulated during this time are believed to be easily forgotten owing to a phenomenon called infantile amnesia.
Some believe that the reason for this occurrence is the fact that neuron growth in the brain during early childhood, which is involved in memory formation, interferes with the storage of our memories. This is why early memories are lost forever, except perhaps with those who have Hyperthymesia -- a medical condition characterized by subjects having extremely detailed, autobiographical memories.
In an effort to investigate the matter, Alessio Travaglia and his colleagues at New York University turned to rats - a species that is known to exhibit infantile amnesia as well. It is believed that 17-day old rats are approximately equivalent to a 2- to 3-year-old human.
For the experiment, rats were placed in a box divided into two compartments: a ‘safe’ compartment and a ‘shock’ compartment. Next, each rat was placed in the safe compartment with its head facing away from the door. After 10 seconds, the door separating the compartments was automatically opened, allowing the rat access to the shock compartment. When a rat entered the shock compartment, it received a mild foot shock.
Based on the results, researchers found that infantile amnesia for the 17-day-old rats, which avoided the ‘shock’ compartment right after the experience lost this memory swiftly.
On the other hand, rats exposed to the shock compartment at 24 days of life learned and retained the memory for a longer time, avoiding the place respectively. This experiment revealed that they exhibited memory similar to that of adult rats.
"What our findings tell us is that children's brains need to get enough and healthy activation even before they enter pre-school," explains Cristina Alberini, a professor in NYU's Center for Neural Science, who led the study. "Without this, the neurological system runs the risk of not properly developing learning and memory functions."
NewsScientist explained that the team compared the brains of young and adult rats before and after learning. They found that several proteins either increased or decreased in quantity within the hippocampi of rats – the region of the brain vital for developing and retaining memory. These changes were triggered by learning, rather than by the passage of time.
In theory, this experiment proves that it might just be possible to protect a child’s initial memories, in much the same way.
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