We took our now 3,5 years old son for a trip to USA last fall … so he was 2,5 years old that time. We live in Europe. Next week i am traveling there again so i spoke with him about me traveling to USA and he started asking me questions about places we were last year. Also he was telling me many specific memories from that trip last year and was asking me about specific people we have met. That is not surprising, it was last year. But how is it possible, that he will not remember anything from it 15 years from now if he remember it year after? I mean, he will not remember he was in USA at all.
I would understand that kids and toddlers keep forgetting stuff and thats why they will never remember them as an adults. But if they remember things from year or more ago, why will they forgett them as an adults?
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In simple terms, the brain is a complex organ and we don’t have a definite answer for this.
However, when you think about it, the size and complexity of your brain is fairly rapidly increasing until 6 years old. This means that your neurones are making lots of new and more complex connections to each other.
One way to explain the loss of memories from very early ages could be to compare your baby-brain to a small city that keeps growing larger and larger, with more roads and buildings being added every year (and others being demolished and forgotten about). Your memories are stored as networks of neurones, which you can imagine as route instructions in how to “collect” a memory, by going from place A to place B through roads C and then D, and so on.
In the small city, you’ll be able to find your way around fine, but when the city grows and changes, these roads or buildings might be harder to find, or be nonexistent.
That’s why it can be hard to remember really early memories, but your ability to recollect things gets better with age as the city stops growing and changing as fast.
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