Infantile amnesia prevents memory retention from the first couple of years of life
Extensive developmental and neurobiological evidence supports the existence of infantile amnesia, which describes the inability to retain and access episodic memories from the earliest years of life due to rapid forgetting and immature neural structures.
The retrieved literature consistently supports the claim that infantile amnesia prevents memory retention from the first couple of years of life, attributing this phenomenon to rapid postnatal forgetting, neurogenesis, microglial activity, and immature hippocampal development. There are no papers contradicting this core premise.
Alberini CM, Travaglia A. Infantile Amnesia: A Critical Period of Learning to Learn and Remember.. 2017. https://doi.org/10.1523/jneurosci.0324-17.2017
Discusses infantile amnesia as the inability of adults to recollect early episodic memories due to rapid forgetting or underdevelopment during a critical developmental period.
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Emily Sutcliffe Cleveland, Elaine Reese. Children remember early childhood: long‐term recall across the offset of childhood amnesia. 2007. https://doi.org/10.1002/acp.1359
Examines long-term recall across the boundary of childhood amnesia, showing that complete forgetting characterizes very early experiences.
Tracy Riggins, K. Canada, Morgan A. Botdorf. Empirical Evidence Supporting Neural Contributions to Episodic Memory Development in Early Childhood: Implications for Childhood Amnesia. 2020. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdep.12353
Explains how protracted neural development in structures like the hippocampus contributes to the fragility of memories early in life.
Grecia López-Oropeza, P. Durán, Alonso Martínez-canabal. Maternal enrichment increases infantile spatial amnesia mediated by postnatal neurogenesis modulation. 2022. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnbeh.2022.971359
Links high rates of hippocampal postnatal neurogenesis and associated plastic changes to the exacerbation of infantile amnesia.
E. Stewart, Louisa G Zielke, Antje R. de Boer, Gabrielle Guillaume Boulaire, Sarah D. Power, T. Ryan. Microglial activity during postnatal development is required for infantile amnesia in mice. 2026. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3003538
Identifies microglial activity during postnatal development as a key regulator driving infantile amnesia and early memory forgetting.
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