第1458期:The mystery of our earliest memories

What is your earliest memory?

 你最早的记忆是什么？

For me, I have a hazy recollection of standing in a leafy garden surrounded by silver birch trees when I was four years old.

对我来说，我模糊地记得我四岁时站在一个被银白桦树环绕的绿树成荫的花园里。

I'm around average: some people remember events as far back as two years old, while for others, things seem patchy until seven or eight.

我处于平均水平：有些人记得早在两岁之前发生的事情，而对于另一些人来说，事情似乎要到七八岁才发生。

But what is consistent is that no one can remember their own birth or very early infancy. 

但一致的是，没有人能记得自己的出生或婴儿早期。

And even after the first memory, most of us only have a sporadic collection of fleeting, flickering mental images until much later in childhood.

即使在第一次记忆之后，我们大多数人也只有零星地收集短暂的、闪烁的心理图像，直到童年的很久以后。

The phenomenon is known as 'childhood amnesia', a term coined by the father of psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud. So, what's going on here?

这种现象被称为“童年健忘症”，这是精神分析之父西格蒙德弗洛伊德创造的一个术语。那么，这里发生了什么？

Babies are, writes Zaria Gorvett for BBC Future, "sponges for new information, forming 700 new neural connections every second and wielding language-learning skills to make the most accomplished polyglot green with envy".

Zaria Gorvett 为 BBC Future 写道，婴儿是“获取新信息的海绵，每秒形成 700 个新的神经连接，并运用语言学习技能，使最有成就的多语种变得羡慕嫉妒恨”。

And it's precisely this rapid mental development that causes the problem, according to a study by the University of Toronto in 2014.

根据多伦多大学 2014 年的一项研究，正是这种快速的心理发展导致了这个问题。

 It found that the high rate of infant brain cell production could increase forgetfulness, because new cells interfere with existing mental circuits.

研究发现，婴儿脑细胞的高产量可能会增加健忘，因为新细胞会干扰现有的心理回路。

Another possible explanation is that the part of the brain that stores memories, the hippocampus, is not fully formed until around 18 months. 

另一种可能的解释是，大脑中存储记忆的部分海马体直到 18 个月左右才完全形成。

Identity is also important: tests show infants don't recognise themselves in the mirror until they are around two years old.

身份也很重要：测试表明婴儿直到两岁左右才能认出镜子中的自己。

Finally, there's the question of how accurate our early memories are at all. 

最后，还有一个问题是我们早期的记忆到底有多准确。

"People can pick up suggestions and begin to visualise them - they become like memories," psychologist Elizabeth Loftus told the BBC.“

人们可以接受建议并开始想象它们——它们就像记忆一样，”心理学家伊丽莎白洛夫特斯告诉 BBC。 

Are our cherished first memories really just family stories?

我们珍贵的最初记忆真的只是家庭故事吗？

词汇表

hazy 模糊的、不清晰的
recollection 记忆，往事
silver birch 白桦树
patchy 零零碎碎的，拼凑起来的
infancy 婴儿期、年幼时候
sporadic 零星的，分散的
fleeting 一闪而过的，短暂的
amnesia 失忆，健忘（症）
to coin 创造，杜撰（新词或表达）
psychoanalysis 精神分析学
sponge 像海绵般地吸收（信息）
neural 神经的
to wield 施加影响
accomplished 有造诣的，有才华的
polyglot 通晓多种语言的人
green with envy 非常羡慕，十分忌妒
forgetfulness 健忘
to interfere 干预，干涉
to visualise 设想，想象
cherished 珍惜的，珍爱的