ELi5 Why we don’t remember our first four years since birth?

Question

ELi5 Why we don’t remember our first four years since birth?

In: 3

Answer 1

The term for this is childhood amnesia or infantile amnesia and there are a lot of proposed explanations. Development of the prefrontal cortex, language acquisition, and others. One has to do with the child’s sense of self / theory of mind developing around age four. The ability of the child to relate past events to the present solidifies episodic memory now that they understand and can put events into context.

Answer 2

The term for this is childhood amnesia or infantile amnesia and there are a lot of proposed explanations. Development of the prefrontal cortex, language acquisition, and others. One has to do with the child’s sense of self / theory of mind developing around age four. The ability of the child to relate past events to the present solidifies episodic memory now that they understand and can put events into context.