Do we remember being born...

[aether]

There is a belief that an individual's childhood experiences affects who she/he will be as an adult. What about coming out of the womb, is our mind developed enough as babies to remember this experience?

Is our concept of seeing the light just an analogy of our being conceived?

[crule81]

What about being conceived, is our mind developed enough as babies to remember this experience?


??????????
I didn't know sperm or eggs have memories.

[aether]

I fixed it

[April]

What about coming out of the womb, is our mind developed enough as babies to remember this experience?

No. Penn and Teller actually had a funny episode of Bullshit that talked about this.

[aether]

Prove it.

[Sir Isaac Lime]

No. Penn and Teller actually had a funny episode of Bullshit that talked about this.

If you're referring to the hypnosis episode, i'm not quite sure that they proved the act of remembering birth impossible, rather then the quack hypnotists that claim they can help you to do so.

[April]

Right, it was the hypnotist episode. They still maintained that it wasn't possible, hence why the hypnotist was full of it.




When can babies start remembering?

Long-term memory doesn't kick in until after a year. Ever wondered why you can't remember being born, taking your first steps, or saying your first word? Some people believe that they can recall these things, while others maintain that the reason we can't remember being born is because the experience is so traumatic we block it out. However, US researchers believe they have found the answer, they claim that the reason why our memories of infancy elude us is because up until we reach our first birthday we only have a short-term memory. The study involved infants that were nine, 17, and 24 months old. The researchers showed the babies a series of actions and then tested their recall four months later. They found that while the babies who were 17 and 24 months old when they had first seen the series of actions recalled them well, the younger babies did not. This finding led the researchers to analyse the development of a baby's brain and they found that between the ages of eight and 12 months the brain goes through a period of dramatic growth. This growth spurt is largely centred in the frontal lobe and hippocampus, areas of the brain that previous research has linked with the formation of memories. The researchers believe that during this growth spurt the brain matures and long-term memory is formed. Prior to the time of the growth spurt they claim that babies are only equipped with a short-term memory. The findings, which are published in the journal Nature, agree with previous studies that have found the same link between the timing of the brain's maturation and the development of long-term memory.

It seems as though there are a lot of websites with people saying "I remembered my birth 2 years ago, and I was completely cured of my depression," etc. I think it may just be comforting to some.

Is this the kind of proof you are looking for? I take Developmental Psychology in two semesters, so I can get back to you then. :lol:

[MasterMerk]

I remember my birth. Scarred me for life.

[ApeTheDog]

A biologist on tv said that babies only switch on their consciousness after they are born - at the time they take their first breath, to be precise. I think it's true.

[glassmoon]

I actually read that many people have re-occuring dreams which represnt being born, like being washed down the sewer. It's also known that babies can hear and when still in the womb and some suggest that they develop higher IQ that way.

[coffeezombie]

My mother claims that she read to me while I was in the womb and this accounts for my "thinking ability." Have any other INTPs had parents that did this as well?

[Ascending]

Check on the reading.

[Biff_Loman]

The real question is: "why would you want to?"

I can't recall being bodily forced through a meat tube, and that's the way I like it.

[CoHo]

Long-term memory doesn't kick in until after a year.

Hrm... I don't know the subject, I would have assumed that a baby would at least remember its parents after a few months. Don't they get used specific people even in the early stages?

[aether]

The real question is: "why would you want to?"

I can't recall being bodily forced through a meat tube, and that's the way I like it.

Maybe its part of your subconscious and it has shocked us for life! It maybe the reason that we need to have a shelter, that we need human contact, etc.

All babies cry when they come out, it must hurt or something.

[Miss Anthropic]

Yeah, I'd imagine it would hurt a lot. I was the fourth kid. My mother said I came out like a greased pig. The doctor wasn't there yet when my mom was ready to push me out and the nurse actually told her to hold her legs together. (To which my mother said, "I'm having the baby now whether the doctor is here it catch it or not!") Maybe that is my birth trauma and all my ills will be cured if I could only remember........

[tragula]

This is an interesting question. I remember when my son was born the obnoxious nurses said not to worry that he would have no memory of anything when they were doing all their painful newborn procedures. I asked them "How do you know?"

And. Actually. Was just reading something that seemed to justify my irritation at the time. Apparently we don't store long term memories before around age three, which is when the hippocampus matures.

But. New research shows that emotional memories may be stored much earlier in the Amygdala, which is functioning at birth. Perhaps laying down some deep unconscious traumas....

[Edmond Zedo]

"I've been born before. I'm pretty used to it. Brain dead is how it always ends."

Of course! I thought everyone did!

[crule81]

My mother claims that she read to me while I was in the womb and this accounts for my "thinking ability." Have any other INTPs had parents that did this as well?

Yes and my parents would read to me every night even when I had no idea what was going on.

[booyalab]

We can figure out the true memories from the false ones, to an extent, through process of elimination.
if anyone remembers their birth in color, they dont remember their birth.

[songbird36]

Rebirthing can help us rediscover this apparently. Has anyone tried it?

[Apostasius]

Was just reading something that seemed to justify my irritation at the time. Apparently we don't store long term memories before around age three, which is when the hippocampus matures.

But. New research shows that emotional memories may be stored much earlier in the Amygdala, which is functioning at birth. Perhaps laying down some deep unconscious traumas....

I've read something similar before. A quick search turned up the following links:
http://www.nospank.net/grille5.htm
http://www.brainconnection.com/topics/printindex.php3?main=fa/infantile-amnesia

[SheepDog]

I recently witnessed (and assisted with) a birth, and I swear that none of it seemed familiar. ;)

I don't remember exactly where, but there have been a lot of studies that show that events during the womb do seem to have been stored after birth. One I recall was of a pianist mother that was rehearsing a particular piece during pregnancy. After birth, they could both predict and measure differences in the child's response to the rehearced piece vs. other pieces that were unfamiliar.

I believe there must be forms of memory that do not involve the conscious recall that we normally talk about as memories. I also think that their true nature will always be somewhat mysterious.