These are the memories that are lost in Alzheimer's disease or aging-related memory impairment. They are also known as explicit memories because they require conscious recollection ( Graf and Schacter, 1985). Declarative memories include both the experience of specific things, people, and events of a given time and place (episodic memories), and general knowledge about the world (semantic memories). How do we develop our abilities to learn and remember facts, people, things, relationships, and places? These memories define our identities they store autobiographical episodes that can be consciously declared, and are therefore termed declarative memories. The long-lasting influence of episodic infantile experiences and the paradox of infantile amnesia
INFANTILE AMNESIA HOW TO
We propose that infantile amnesia reflects a developmental critical period during which the learning system is learning how to learn and remember. Here, with a particular focus on the hippocampal memory system, we review the literature and discuss new evidence obtained in rats that illuminates the paradox of infantile amnesia. It remains unclear how a brain that rapidly forgets, or is not yet able to form long-term memories, can exert such a long-lasting and important influence. Although early memories are inaccessible to adults, early-life events, such as neglect or aversive experiences, can greatly impact adult behavior and may predispose individuals to various psychopathologies. It has been suggested that infantile amnesia is due to the underdevelopment of the infant brain, which would preclude memory consolidation, or to deficits in memory retrieval. Infantile amnesia, the inability of adults to recollect early episodic memories, is associated with the rapid forgetting that occurs in childhood.