sometime between the ages of threeand five-years-old.
those synapses can be recruited for
something different”.
In the early years of our lives, our
brains are rapidly and actively
developing, forming new synapses
– the connection between neurons
– and crucially, pruning them later
on. There is a steady rise of synaptic
connections up until the age of three,
then starts declining after you blow
out the five candles on your birthday
cake. In layman’s terms, your brain
finally decides the connections that
it needs and chooses to retain, and
removing the connections that are not
as important. Unfortunately, childhood
memories belong to the latter group.
Other studies also point to the
hippocampus being a bit of a forgetful
chap in its younger years due to the
immense growth of nerve cells in
that small area of the brain when
the child is growing up. As more and
more new memories are created, the
immature hippocampus loses track of
the older memories. It’s rather ironic
that the organ responsible for memory
creation and storage forgets where it
stored the memory.
Computational neurologist Paul
King explains: “Young children can
learn very quickly, and since learning
is basically a rearrangement of
the representational structures of
memory, this learning likely has a
side effect of degrading memories
while the brain seeks its optimal
representational strategy. Unlike a
computer, the brain does not have
empty memory locations waiting to
be filled.”
Instead, the brain engages in a
process called shredding, constantly
removing and forming new synapses
and neurons, including the ones
involved in remembering. We can
lose our memories if the synapses
that connect to these neurons are not
used. According to psychologist
Patricia Bauer, “if you
never use
the memory,
Language, and the learning of it, is
also widely agreed to play a big role
in infantile amnesia. The brain thrives
on structure and since the foundation
of language – grammar, etc. – has
a conceptual structure, it provides
the brain with a support framework
for knowledge which consequently
helps to stabilise memory. Simply put,
a young child is unable to describe
an event because he or she doesn’t
have the requisite language skills to
describe it. It probably explains why I
couldn’t remember my soiled diaper
shenanigans; when my vocabulary
expanded, I had upgraded to the
portable potty.
THE ROLE OF CULTURE
AND EMOTION
However, this still didn’t explain my
fragmented memories of sleeping
on my father’s lap during the
long journeys on public transport.
Psychologist Carole Peterson has an
explanation – if a childhood memory
was more emotional and dense
(the child understands the who,
what, when, where and why), the
memory would be five times more
likely to be retained as opposed to
inconsequential fragments. Peterson
and her colleagues from the Memorial
University of Newfoundland have also
managed to pinpoint the age that
childhood memories begin to vanish
through a series of studies.
First, they assembled a group of
children between the ages of four
and 13 to describe their three earliest
memories. The children’s parents
stood by and verified that these
memories did indeed occur and was
not just a figment of the children’s
imaginations. Then, two years later,
the children were interviewed again
to see if they still remembered the
memories that they had shared.
More than a third of those aged 10
and older still remembered the
memories they had shared during the
first interview. However, the younger
children, especially those who were
first interviewed when they were four,
had largely forgotten the memories
they had shared, even when they were
prompted. “They said: ‘No, that never
happened to me.’ We were watching
childhood amnesia in action,” says
Peterson.
Interestingly, another study conducted
in 2009 by Peterson alongside two
compatriots, Qi Wang from Cornell
and Yubo Hou from Peking University,
suggests that the ability to retain
childhood memories is also dependent
on cultu