This might explain why people have trouble remembering their childhood

May 11, 2014 01:57 GMT  ·  By

The outcome of a series of experiments carried out on laboratory mice might explain why it is that, more often than not, people have trouble remembering what their childhood was all about.

The specialists who conducted these experiments say that, according to their investigations, new brain cells that form in the hippocampus, i.e. a part of the brain that deals with memory formation, have the potential to cause bits and pieces of information to be forgotten.

Simply put, having one's hippocampus welcome newly formed brain cells might delete old memories that this part of the brain helped create and store, Nature explains.

Interestingly enough, these findings appear to go against common held belief that having more neurons makes for a better memory, neuroscientist Sheena Josselyn explains. However, there is an explanation for this odd phenomenon.

Thus, it is said that, although new brain cells do help improve on the process of creating and storing memories, they nonetheless have a negative impact on information that is already stored in the brain.

“More neurons increase the capacity to learn new memories in the future. But memory is based on a circuit, so if you add to this circuit, it makes sense that it would disrupt it,” Sheena Josselyn said in a statement.