Memories

Scientists -- and parents -- have long wondered why we don’t remember anything that happened before age 3.
--NBCNews.com

Actually, I -- for one -- do.

 My family moved from a small triplex unit to our first real house just one or two months before my third birthday.  I have distinct memories of quite a few events while living in the triplex, and also good memories of checking out the new house before the furniture was moved in.  (I recall being fascinated by the location of the electrical outlets, and how the normal outlets varied from the large three-prong outlet for the kitchen range -- and yet, despite this early start, I never became an electrician).

The article explains that "infantile amnesia" results from the rapid growth of the hippocampus during a child's early years, a proliferation of brain cells that causes memories to be lost as the hippocampus develops.  The hippocampus keeps track of where long-term memories have been stored; it presumably loses track of these locations during its rapid development.  A scientist was quoted as saying that his four-year-old daughter had detailed memories of a vacation a few months earlier.  "But four years from now she won't remember anything."

Don't bet on it professor.  My memories as a four-year-old are also rather clear.  Not day to day, of course, but memories of events that, for one reason or another, made an impression on me.

“The hippocampus matures slowly and probably doesn’t reach any reasonable maturity until we’re 3 or 4,” [Dr. Eric] Kandel says. “While 2- and 3-year-olds can remember things for a short time, the hippocampus is required for long-term storage of those memories.”

Either these scientists' data regarding storage and retrieval of memories are incorrect (based on my own highly-persuasive anecdotal evidence), or my hippocampus -- unlike the rest of my physiology -- was an exuberant early bloomer.

I should submit a paper based on myself.