Infantile amnesia results from differential memory retrieval in humans
How to prepare an accurate paper press kit? Illustrated guide
S. D. Power, A. Werwach, A. Peikert, M. Fey, T. Forbes-Mitchell, J. Hild et al. · DOI: 10.64898/2026.10.19.755340 · Summary page
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A forgotten memory may be difficult to reach
Why do our earliest experiences become so difficult to remember? Researchers followed toddlers aged 18-24 months through learning, retrieval one day later and delayed testing up to six months later, using a naturalistic episodic-memory task. Computational modelling suggested that forgetting was not uniform: toddlers were as likely to retain the full memory as to lose it completely, while nearly a quarter retained only part. Accuracy during learning predicted full recall at the early test, but not at the delayed test.
Instead, a retrieval-specific EEG signature predicted complete recall before the toddlers gave their behavioural response. The findings support the idea that some early memories become inaccessible rather than simply disappearing, although behavioural failure cannot by itself establish whether a memory survives. Using the COVID-19 pandemic as a natural experiment, the researchers also linked maternal immune activation during pregnancy to altered vulnerability to forgetting. The broader lesson is that remembering depends not only on what was stored, but on the machinery available to retrieve it.
Editorial context written by AI from abstracts, not independent scientific validation. The kit and its verified quotes rely on the source paper, not on this letter.
Talk about a paper in public without overstating it: yours, one you are asked to comment on, or one you write about as a journalist.
- Your paper: a draft release for your press office, the questions journalists will ask with what the paper lets you answer, the likely misreadings, a lay summary and a short thread.
- Asked to comment: what the paper shows and does not, its strengths and weaknesses with their passages, and what would settle its main claim.
- Writing about it as a journalist: reporting angles, the wording to check before publication, and the questions to ask the authors.
- For everyone: findings with their passages checked word for word, the novelty set against the closest earlier papers, a hype check, figures with their credit, and researchers for an outside view who have not signed with the authors.