Topic: infantile amnesia

Early episodic and contextual memories are forgotten despite their distinct impact on personality development and future behaviour. This phenomenon, termed infantile amnesia, is widely seen in humans and is conserved across other altricial species. In previous years it has become evident that infant memories are stored through the plasticity of neuronal ensembles, forming engrams that remain present in the brain in a latent state once forgotten. Recently, it has been shown that alterations in brain development caused by maternal immune activation (MIA) lead to infant memory retention in male o

Memories encoded during infancy are often rapidly forgotten. This accelerated memory decline is known as infantile amnesia, and is hallmarked by the inability of natural cues to induce the retrieval of early-life memories later in life. Remarkably, infant memories in rodents are not lost. Artificial stimulation of infant memory ensembles can drive according behavior, leading to the hypothesis that infant memories persist through time albeit in a latent state. In our study, we aim to unravel under which circumstances “forgotten” infant memory ensembles can be reactivated by natural cues in adul