Dartmouth Events

Please join us for a colloquium on Thursday, April 3, 2025, starting at 1:05 p.m., given by Nick Turk-Browne, Director of Wu Tsai Institute and Professor of Psychology at Yale University. Moore location to be determined. 

Title:  Learning and Memory in the Infant Brain

Abstract:  Cognitive neuroscience provides a rich account of how brain systems give rise to diverse forms of learning and memory. However, these theories and models are based mostly on adult data and often neglect early development, the greatest period of learning in life. Key challenges for studying this period include the limited behavioral measures available in preverbal babies and the limited resolution and coverage of infant-friendly neural measures (scalp EEG and fNIRS), including a lack of access to deep-brain structures like the hippocampus that are critical for adult learning and memory. I will present our recent work adapting fMRI, a technique that addresses some of these limitations, for studying awake human infants and toddlers. These studies reveal how hippocampal function develops over the first two years of life and shed light on the mysterious amnesia for this period that all humans come to experience.