Babies do form memories — they just can’t be retrieved later on In a nutshell * Babies do form memories. Brain scans show that by around 12 months, infants’ hippocampus — the brain’s memory center — is active during learning and linked to later recognition, suggesting babies can encode memories earlier than previously believed. * The memories may not be lost, just inaccessible. The study supports the idea that “infantile amnesia” isn’t due to a failure to form memories, but rather a later inability to retrieve them. * Different memory systems develop at different times. Even younger babies (as young...