How come we don't remember a thing when we were born?

Question

it's probably a dumb question....but bear with me ok, we came into existence, how come we don't remember a thing about it, and we only have memories from when we were 4 yes old and so on, ( I actually have memories from when I was 2yrs old) but I hope i'm making sense

ok maybe not remember a thing after being pulled out, ew...but maybe from day 2

Answer 1

We don't remember things from that young because those memories are over-written by new memories.

Answer 2

It is for a good reason that the senses of a new born is not well-developed at least upto and approaching the first year after the birth. It would be too traumatic otherwise. There have been instances where some children could remember way back when they were almost a year old. These have been very rare and documented in some journals.

Very good question....

Answer 3

Who says you don't?

Considering that your perceptions as a newborn are so vastly different than that as an adult, you may have memories that just aren't interpretable as an adult. When you were born, you had no developed senses. Your perceptions of sight, smell, hearing, taste, and pain were barely human by adult standards. Humanity, language, even a non-aqueous environment were not only totally foreign concepts to you, but were literally indescribable. Heck, you even lived upside down until just before birth. So even if you had memories of that time, your adult mind wouldn't relate to the mental and physical sensations you had, and therefore wouldn't even register as a memory.

I guess the closest analogy would be of a person who recently learned a foreign language even though they had heard it spoken before they understood it. Even after you learn the language, you're not liklely to translate much that was said to you in that language before you understood it, because your perception at the time was not that it was a language, but a bunch of unfamiliar sounds. You'll never perceive those sounds as words, even though you heard them identically the same then as now.

Answer 4

There are two prevailing arguments for why we cannot remember our birth.

1.) Our brain is not yet developed enough to store the types of memories like the ones you have from when you are 2 years old

2.) Our brain has the capacity of blocking access to challenging times of our lives, like physical abuse, and our birth is blocked by this mechanism.

I have a friend who swears she can remember laying in the bassinet in the hospital, but she can't remember anything before that.

Answer 5

probably for the same reason i couldnt tell you what i had for dinner last night.....no seriously...we have no memory capacity at this point although we may be able to be hypnotized to recapture this information...we also have no concept of money or time but we learn it...also other memories and learned actions take the place of these recollections thus proving them to be insignificant....basically what could you have possibly have done that you would want to remember?...and besides i would think that being born is such a traumatic experience that we would naturally block it out

Answer 6

If i recall correctly from all my psch classes - it has something to do with short term vs long term memory not being fully developed. Most people have memories from 3-4 years of age forward when the memory is fully developed.

Hope that helps some.

Answer 7

You are born with one hundred billion neurons. Then the neuronal " pruning " begins. Neuronal tracks laid at birth can disappear, or be redirected. This may have the most to do with the lack of natal memory, so, do not put much stock in psychological answers. The neurologist, Eldelmen, has his neuronal group selection theory that covers this process well.

Answer 8

One of my sister's, Missy, remembers the moment when she was in my mother's womb. She recalls hearing my mother and father arguing back and forth.......... She said she never forgot that she could hear that.......

However, the reason we don't remember is because we have spent too much time trying to leave behind a life that was quite innocent.... In giving up our innocense, we trade it in for experience...... Experience began when we started learning....

The first step in learning to be more human was to take our first steps....... Then, we began to learn how to communicate in a language that was not like the one we had when we came here.... That is something we had to unlearn in order to be more human.......

If you listen to a baby, you will hear that they have their own language.... But, they do not know what we know about this life that they have to take on..... Once they do start learning what it means to be us..... or like us...... They begin to forget the "other life" they once lived........


Your sister,
Ginger

Answer 9

Probably because being born is the most traumatic thing you'll ever go through. Think about it.. its pretty scary for someone who has no idea what is happening.

Answer 10

AT an early age, there is so much information that is being shoved at our brains. Not just what our memory can contain, but our bodies are also learning muscle memory and such. So, although it appears that we do not remember much, our body does.