At the age of seven, the memories fade One answer is obvious: young children's brains may not even be able to store memories in the first place.
Language changes the brain
Probably the best explanation for childhood amnesia is related to language development. At the age of three to four, exactly the age when our memory begins as adults, children learn more and more words and can already form short sentences. The result: while previously we memorized experiences using images, actions or feelings, now we store them more and more linguistically. This could make it difficult to retrieve non-verbal memory traces.
Memories are neural patterns
There are extensive brain restructurings behind language learning and other developmental steps. In the first and second years of life, the network between nerve cells initially increases dramatically. Then the "tangle of neurons" thins again.
Memories are stored in this network of areas of the brain as certain patterns of neural activity. If we want to retrieve a memory trace, we have to activate the pattern again.
New nerve cells encourage forgetfulness
In childhood, not only do neural connections change, the brain also creates a large number of new brain cells. The so-called neurogenesis could also play a role in childhood amnesia.
And how is it that people continue to tell stories of their first two years of life? They are mostly memories of stories, photos or videos from the past that cannot be distinguished from real memories, but there is a simple trick to trace such delusions from memory. “You may ask yourself: Do I remember what happened with my own eyes and many details? So it's probably my own memory ”,“ If, on the contrary, I see the scene as a third person from the outside, the image is added later ”.
Investigation:
What is childhood amnesia and how long does it last?
