Virtually nobody has memories from very early childhood but it's not because we don't retain information as young children. Rather, it may be because at that age, our brains don't yet function in a way that bundles information into the complex neural patterns that we know as memories.
It's clear that young children do remember facts in the moment such as who their parents are, or that one must say "please" before mom will give you candy. This is called "semantic memory."
Until sometime between the ages two and four, however, children lack "episodic memory" -- memory regarding the details of a specific event. Such memories are stored in several parts of the brain's surface, or "cortex." For example, memory of sound is processed in the auditory cortexes, on the sides of the brain, while visual memory is managed by the visual cortex, at the back. A region of the brain called the hippocampus ties all the scattered pieces together.
"If you think of your cortex as a flower bed, there are flowers all across the top of your head," said Patricia Bauer of Emory University in Atlanta. "The hippocampus, tucked very neatly in the middle of your brain, is responsible for pulling those all together and tying them in a bouquet." The memory is the bouquet -- the neural pattern of linkages between the parts of the brain where a memory is stored.
My dad has a very Clear memory from ho was just a couple of months old. He was lting in a crib in the corner of their first house, and saw a spider making a web in hve ceeling, and was terrified. He was so small that He could not do anything about it.
Later He Asked his mom "when did the crib stand in the corner" and she told him He was about six months old.
So yeah. People can remember things, as long as it It's a powerfull feeling.
We can remember traumatic events from younger than 3 but generally we don't recall much else from the very early years: I remember being taken to visit "mummy and Johnny" in hospital and I wasn't entirely sure who Johnny was. (He's my little brother.) I was 15 months old at the time and while it's a snippet of a memory it's crystal clear.
Considering how important the early years are it's interesting to learn just how little we retain of that time.
I remember sitting in front of the TV as a baby lookin at the lights then i look beside me. I see who I now know as my dad but all skinny and stuff. And I fell over because for some reason he scared baby me.
It's clear that young children do remember facts in the moment such as who their parents are, or that one must say "please" before mom will give you candy. This is called "semantic memory."
Until sometime between the ages two and four, however, children lack "episodic memory" -- memory regarding the details of a specific event. Such memories are stored in several parts of the brain's surface, or "cortex." For example, memory of sound is processed in the auditory cortexes, on the sides of the brain, while visual memory is managed by the visual cortex, at the back. A region of the brain called the hippocampus ties all the scattered pieces together.
Source:
Shouse, Benjamin. "Why Don't We Remember Being Babies?" LiveScience. TechMedia Network, 07 Feb. 2011. Web. 24 May 2015. <http://www.livescience.com/32963-why-dont-we-remember-being-babies.html>.
Later He Asked his mom "when did the crib stand in the corner" and she told him He was about six months old.
So yeah. People can remember things, as long as it It's a powerfull feeling.
Considering how important the early years are it's interesting to learn just how little we retain of that time.
I was 13 months.
Traumatic.