The objectivity of the scientists' findings is based on the use of MRI scans of children's brains. They worked with 26 children aged four months to two years, who were asked to perform a memory task. At the same time, they underwent functional MRI. The scientists mainly assessed the activity of the hippocampus - this is the area of the brain associated with the reproduction of memories in adults.
The strongest coding activity was recorded in the posterior hippocampus, writes Nature. The signal was highest in children over 12 months old, but the presence of memories was noted in all children. “This suggests a developmental trajectory in the ability of the hippocampus to encode individual memories,” said co-author Nick Turk-Brown.
The authors say that adults' inability to recall their early years likely points to a memory problem. "There may be discrepancies between the initial storage of memories and the cues the brain now uses to retrieve them," they say. These discrepancies will be the subject of further research.
Previously, when studying memory function in adults, scientists discovered the negative impact of stress. It turned out that stress disrupts the mechanism of memory formation in the brain, which leads to an unwanted fear reaction even in safe conditions.
