Do you ever find yourself curious about what life was like as a baby, yet can’t seem to recall any of those early moments? You might have memories from your infancy, but accessing them as an adult can be quite the challenge.
Recent research sheds light on this phenomenon. A study published in the journal Science on Thursday analyzed 26 infants, aged between 4.2 to 24.9 months, separating them into two groups: those under 12 months and those aged 12 to 24 months.
During the study, the babies were placed in an fMRI machine, where they were shown a variety of distinctive images for two seconds each. The goal was to observe activity in the hippocampus, a brain structure crucial for emotions, memory, and regulating the autonomic nervous system.
Dr. Nick Turk-Browne, the lead author of the study and a professor of psychology at Yale University, explained, “The hippocampus is a deep structure in the brain that traditional methods can’t easily visualize, so we had to develop a novel method to conduct memory experiments with infants inside an MRI machine. Previous studies mostly took place while babies were asleep because of their tendency to wiggle, inability to follow instructions, and short attention spans.”
Dr. Simona Ghetti, a professor of psychology at the University of California, Davis, who specializes in childhood memory development, noted that while previous studies have shown that infants can encode memories, this research is particularly significant as it links memory encoding directly to hippocampal activity. It’s worth mentioning that Dr. Ghetti wasn’t involved in this specific study.
After a brief pause, researchers presented the babies with two images side by side: one that was familiar and another that was new. They carefully monitored the babies’ eye movements to determine which image captured their attention for longer.
If a baby gazed longer at the familiar image, it indicated recognition and memory recall. Conversely, a lack of preference likely suggested that their memory was still developing, according to the findings.
“Eye movements have been pivotal in numerous studies examining infant memory and categorization,” Ghetti explained via email. “Babies tend to focus on what piques their interest, and researchers have consistently utilized this natural behavior to gain insights into memory capabilities.”
