title: The elusive engram: what can infantile amnesia tell us about memory?
abstract: Revealing the engram is one of the greatest challenges in neuroscience. Many researchers focus on understanding the cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying the formation and maintenance of the engram, but an underutilized approach has been to investigate analogous processes associated with forgetting. Infant rodents present an ideal model for this purpose because they display a rapid form of non-pathological forgetting known as infantile amnesia (IA). Despite the widespread importance of this interesting phenomenon, the study of the neural bases of IA has remained largely neglected. Here, we consider what IA can tell us about memory. We argue that to understand the mechanisms underlying the engram we must also gain an appreciation of the mechanisms that drive forgetting.
authors.affiliation: School of Psychology, The University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia. Electronic address: b.callaghan@unsw.edu.au.
authors.forename: Bridget L
authors.initials: BL
authors.lastname: Callaghan
authors.affiliation: School of Psychology, The University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia.
authors.forename: Stella
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: School of Psychology, The University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia.
authors.forename: Rick
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Richardson
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008568:Memory / Q000502:physiology*
keywords: engram; forgetting; infantile amnesia; memory; molecular mechanisms