John Jonides Lecture | Learning and memory in the infant brain

Theories of human learning and memory rest almost entirely on adults and older children, neglecting our most prolific period of learning in life: infancy. This gap reflects the challenge of studying the infant brain. Traditional infant methods like EEG and fNIRS are unable to resolve memory systems deep in the brain, including the hippocampus. I will present our work adapting fMRI, the gold standard for studying the mature human hippocampus noninvasively, to awake infants and toddlers. Our studies begin to reveal how hippocampal functions for statistical learning and episodic memory develop over the first two years, pointing toward a new account of the mysterious infantile amnesia that all humans come to experience.

The talk will be followed by a reception with light refreshments at Pizza House.