From: Wade Smith (wade_smith@harvard.edu)
Date: Thu 07 Nov 2002 - 15:28:50 GMT
http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/309/science/Babies_memories_advance_in_second_year_study_saysP.
shtml
Babies' memories advance in second year, study says
By Reuters, 11/5/2002
LONDON - Babies' memories develop slowly in the first year of life but
accelerate through the next 12 months, a group of American scientists
said last week.
The improvement is not just due to growing experience, they wrote in the
science journal Nature, but also to the increasing capacity of the
babies' brains in their second year.
Researchers from Harvard University's department of psychology
demonstrated to groups of 9-month-old, 17-month-old, and 24-month-old
babies a series of simple actions such as wiping a table and throwing
away the cloth, describing what they were doing at the same time.
Four months later they asked the babies to carry out the actions on
their own and without a further demonstration.
''As expected, the 21- and 28-month-olds showed a robust memory for
events experienced four months earlier, whereas the 13-month-olds did
not,'' they wrote. ''Our findings ... support the idea that maturation
of the frontal lobe at the end of the first year contributes to memory
enhancement during this period.
''Our results support the popular belief that at nine months the
hippocampus and regions of the frontal cortex are not yet fully mature.''
This story ran on page F3 of the Boston Globe on 11/5/2002.
© Copyright 2002 Globe Newspaper Company.
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