Why Can't People Remember Being Born?

You probably remember your 18th birthday, but not your first – or your zeroth. Why is that?

A lot of things are easy to remember: My high school graduation. My first summer job. That time I got arrested for emptying a bunch of Jello packets into Bryan Cranston’s gas tank – long story.

It doesn’t take a scientist to notice that adults don’t generally remember things that happened before the age of about 3 or 4. Why is that? Why can’t we remember the earliest events in our lives, up to and including birth?

OK, here’s an experiment: Try to remember what happened the last time you ate a burrito. Where were you? Who was with you? Was the burrito full of spiders?

These kinds of memories – being able to recall details of a particular event in the past – are called episodic memories. A person at age 60 will usually have some episodic memories from age 30 – she might not get all the details right, but she will be able to recall some events and explain what happened.

But if you take that same person at age 30 and ask her to describe something that happened during her first year of life, you’ll typically get nothing at all.

Sigmund Freud referred to this hole in our memory as “childhood amnesia,” or “infantile amnesia.” Freud, being Freud, explained it by saying we needed to repress memories from infancy because of their inappropriate or traumatic sexual content.

But sometimes a blank is just a blank, and contemporary scientists don’t tend to throw in with Freud on this one.

Another hypothesis that used to be popular says that babies can’t form episodic memories until they develop certain cognitive capacities, like language.

But there’s a major problem with the language-based hypothesis: Experiments have shown that animals like mice also display both long-term memory and infantile amnesia. Since childhood amnesia crosses species lines, it’s probably something to do with brain biology rather than language.

One possible answer would be to say that baby brains simply can’t make memories. It’s true that memory encoding isn’t as efficient in infant brains as it is in the brains of older children or adults – possibly because the prefrontal cortex of a baby’s brain hasn’t reached maturity yet.

But recent studies have shown that very young children can form some memories, leading scientists to think it’s not that we don’t make memories early in life, but that after a certain point, we can’t access them. The memories are made, but something happens to them: They get erased, or put behind some kind of memory blockade.

Patricia Bauer and Marina Larkina of Emory University have led research on this hypothesis: For example, in one study, researchers recorded children at age 3 describing a recent event, like a trip to a theme park.

Years later, the researchers followed up with those same children to see how much they remembered. At ages 5, 6 and 7, the children could recall more than 60 percent of the earlier events, but by ages 8 and 9, their recall was less than 40 percent. More research of this kind is needed, but this looks like watching the onset of childhood amnesia as it happens.

Another recent study has considered the role of neurogenesis in the hippocampus. The hippocampus is a part of the brain that’s crucial for creating and storing episodic memories. If you didn’t have either of your hippocampi, you could end up like the guy in “Memento” – unable to make new episodic memories.

Neuroscientists Sheena Josselyn and Paul Frankland have proposed a theory that childhood amnesia happens because of rapid formation of new cells in the hippocampus when children are young. This is known as hippocampal neurogenesis.

Basically, while your brain is manufacturing lots of the cells you will use to make memories for the rest of your life, it wipes away or obscures the memories you already created as a young child.

SOURCES:

[mechadonia]

One time I was 3 and I was playing with toy trains in my daycare and thought to myself "you will remember this moment". Still do to this day

[TheTrafiz]

Close your eyes and try remembering an event you experienced in the past.

Many people remember events they experience in the 3rd person, seeing themselves in their memory. If you think about it, that is impossible.

[AZLionheart]

My first memory is waking up on my third birthday and knowing it was my third birthday. I remember confidently walking downstairs from my room and stating it was my birthday. Then I got my present. It was a remote controlled car. This was back in 1985.

[renehernandez]

I remember when I was in my moms stomach here are some details
• you can see like if u had ur eyes close
• you can hear like if u have ur ear close to someone's stomach
• u can only hear ur moms voice and rarely other voices
• also ur floating in water
That's all I remember

[bryanbroacosta]

My earliest is probably 2 or 3 I remember taking a juice baby bottle away from another baby

[MiMiTheMemer]

My brother can remember a little bit after being born. He said he remembers looking around and seeing these people who he didn't know. He also remembers not having words for it but it was more a feeling of not knowing them, if that makes sense. My mom and dad said that he was very aware when he was born because his eyes were wide open and he was watching the nurse walk by and he was holding his head up. It sounded amazing! That's my older brother. I'm one of two children in my family. Well, this girl is out! PEACE!

[BrainStuffShow]

You probably remember your 18th birthday, but not your first – or your zeroth. Why is that?

[Lee-Leee]

Earliest memory of when I was 2 and a half. I hurt my knee and my dad brought me home a pound puppy stuffed animal. I remember feeling happy.

[rev_lunar]

My earliest memory was when i was a baby, I was probably a little under a year old. I was in my mom's friend's house playing with keys while my mom was getting her hair done. I saw my mom's friend plug in a hair drier and turn it on and wondered what would happen if I plugged in the keys. It wasn't pleasant and the last thing I remember is getting hit with a broom handle and crying.

[KartikayKaul]

I recall one memory as a dream where i was in my mom's arms and they were in a warehouse and buying a refrigerator or something. She told me I was almost 1 years old. And the second earliest memory of mine is as a 2 year old. when i was running half naked across snow capped mountains in Manali(India) and interrupting romantix sessions between couples on honeymoon. long story.

[MrJakeyyy]

I'm pretty sure I have a memory from when I was 1 or 2 years old.
I had a dog that died before I turned two years old yet I can remember laying on the floor as a baby and the dog wouldn't stop licking me, and I couldn't stop laughing.

Watching this video made me question whether or not the memory is real, but I can still see it in my head, and I knew what the dog looked like before I even see a photo of him. So maybe not ALL memories get wiped

[olixok]

When I was about 1 year old I remember my Dad filming me. I was under the table and I was staring at the red light on the camera. The funny thing is that I've never seen the video because it doesn't exist anymore. One time I told my parents about that and they were truly shocked because they remembered watching the video and my Dad also still remembers me being fascinated with the red light.

[corbinbishop]

I am 14 and I remember what the first house I lived in looks like people think its impossible but when I told my parents what I remembered they said it was right, I mostly remembered things like colours. Also this is likely be due to me reminding myself throughout my life, which is why I still remember something that early.

[zzzgeok]

I can remember crawling out of my crib when I was still unable to walk well. I was under six months old, and was actually walking around six months. The memories are pretty sketchy, but by a year old I have memories that are fairly clear.

[thethoughtfulcartoonist]

I remember crying hysterically and the feeling of betrayal and abandonment when my mom and aunt handed me over to an absolutely terrifying green monster with gigantic eyes that I could not get away from.

Turns out I was about three months old and my aunt brought over a huge green frog plush she thought I would like. They lay me down on its lap for a photo and baby me lost it.

[paulma]

I remember a campaign that said something like "the first 5 years of your life are the most important in your life", i don't remember anything of those first 5 years.
Also it is said that if you get hit hard in the head you can develop amnesia; some of my first memories are of being hit hard in the head repeatedly.

[ds]

How did scientists figure out that mice have infantile amnesia? Did the mice tell them?

[Vivky.]

The earliest memory I have is when I was in reception. I had came out of school that day and saw my mum in a red long coat waiting for me. Another memory was when I was in yr 1. I had nearly went home with a complete stranger because the guy had looked like my dad, I only found out that it wasn't my dad when I had said "daddy? I'm tired can you carry me?" The guy turned around and saw me. He had swore and rushed me back to the classroom where my dad had picked me up about 5 minutes later 😂

[toubo]

A part of my early childhood, i do remember is. Being the only kid not falling asleep during nap time. xD

[Chickensaretasty]

My earliest memory must've been when I was about two and a half years old, because I, being two years old, wanted to see what would happen if I deliberately tripped myself up on a step. I hurt my leg really badly :(