BrainStuff Season 4 Episode 1 Why Can't People Remember Being Born?

BrainStuff season 4 opens with an intriguing question - Why can't people remember being born? This episode explores the difficulties surrounding early memory and presents the scientific theories behind it.

Host Christian Sager takes the viewers on a journey to understand why our earliest memories are often vague and poorly-defined. The episode begins with Sager sharing his own early memories of living in Japan, playing in the backyard, and seeing a blackout during a festival. He then poses the question of why we cannot remember our own birth.

To find the answers to this question, Sager first examines the ways in which memories are formed. He explains that the hippocampus, a small part of our brain, is responsible for creating new memories. However, at birth, the hippocampus is not fully developed, making it difficult for newborns to encode and store memories.

Moreover, the episode points out that humans are born with an overabundance of neurons. Our brains grow the most during the first few years of our lives when our environment is formative for the brain. During this time, the brain develops and prunes connections, making it easier for us to learn and remember efficiently. However, this process means that some memories are lost forever.

The episode also touches on the concept of infantile amnesia, which refers to the lack of memory of early childhood. Sager explains that memories that are less than three years old do not seem to stick well, and that memories before the age of six are quite hazy or vague in people's recall.

But why do we not remember anything from our earliest years? The episode argues that the reason is because these memories are not memorable. Humans tend to remember unique and noteworthy experiences, which are often not frequent in our earliest years. These experiences must have enough emotional significance to imprint them on our memory. Infants and toddlers experience a lot of mundane events that do not meet the criteria for a noteworthy memory.

The episode also explores the role of language in shaping early memory. Childhood memories are tied to language learning, and kids recall and retain those moments that they can relay to others. Retelling of memorable experiences is both a way of cementing them in our memories and transmitting them to others.

BrainStuff season 4 episode 1, "Why Can't People Remember Being Born?" concludes that while people cannot remember their birth, they can still create meaningful moments that stick with them. The lack of early memories does not hinder our development or progress in any way. Babies and infants are equipped with the tools and innate drives necessary to explore and learn about the world around them. What's more, the episode also introduces the idea of memories being formed as a story. Sager points out that this analytical construct of a personal narrative contributes to making memories permanent. Therefore, though people cannot remember being born, they can make and recall precious memories from numerous other life experiences.