Can you talk about what happened to you in early childhood? What is your very first memory and how old were you then? It is worth noting that most people only have difficulty remembering small passages from early period their childhood, for example, when they were about three, four or five years old. What is the reason for this and why do we not remember ourselves when we were still very young children? In this article we will try to find answers to this question.

Shelley Macdonald research

In one of her studies, Shelley Macdonald (psychologist from New Zealand) decided to find out why children do not remember themselves well in childhood and what exactly it depends on. To do this, she was conducted an experiment in which New Zealanders participated. various origins(European and Asian), including representatives of the indigenous population of the country - the Maori tribes. As a result, it was possible to find out that representatives of Asian countries remember their childhood most poorly, because on average the first memories of their childhood in this group appear only after four and a half years.

A little better to remember what happened to them in the first years of life, may come from European countries. Most of them were able to recall some life episodes, starting at the age of three and a half. But best memory in this regard, representatives of the Maori tribes possessed. It turned out that, on average, they can talk about individual situations that happened to them when they were still two and a half years old.

Psychologist Shelley McDonald explained this by saying that the indigenous people of New Zealand have a very rich oral culture, a feature of which is to create an emphasis on events that took place in the past. Representatives of the Maori tribes pay a lot of attention to past events, which certainly affects the emotional situation in the family in which small children grow up.

Stress and communication with relatives

Similar studies were carried out in other parts of the world. For example, the Italian psychologist Federica Artioli conducted a series of studies in which Italians took part. She managed to find out that those participants in the experiment who lived in large families with grandparents, aunts and uncles can tell a lot more about what happened to them in early childhood than those who were raised only by their father and mother.

At the same time, the most vivid memories about that period are interesting stories and fairy tales told to them by their parents and next of kin. In addition, stress can also influence the formation of memory. After all, children whose parents divorced when they were not yet six years old remember their early childhood much better.

What could be the reason?

About the exact reasons bad memory in children, scientists and psychologists argue today. Some believe that this is a consequence of the rapid perception of information that the child “absorbs like a sponge” in the first years. As a result, newer memories are "overwritten" in our memory on top of the old ones. Others explain this by an insufficient level of memory development in young children. An interesting theory Sigmund Freud also suggested it, describing it in his work Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality. He proposed the term " infantile amnesia". In his opinion, it is she who is the reason for the lack of clear memories of the first years of our lives.

In a dream, we manage to overcome all conceivable and unthinkable obstacles, visit unknown countries and even fall in love, but, as a rule, with awakening, nightly adventures dissolve in consciousness. So how do our dreams arise, and why are they so completely erased from memory, and is it possible to keep a dream in memory with all the details? Experts have done a lot of research and are now one step closer to the truth.

Why do we fall asleep

Surely you have noticed more than once that the moment of “falling asleep”, when there is a disconnection from reality, cannot be tracked. So how do we fall asleep anyway? Scientists from Sweden came to the conclusion that we fall asleep at the moment when the brain centers that were at rest in daytime. And American experts noticed that important role plays the lack of daylight that translates our The biological clock at night due to the production of melatonin, the sleep hormone. In any case, the unanimous opinion of experts from different points peace never came. There is even an opinion that a person falls asleep due to the accumulation of certain metabolic products in the body during the day.

Everyone sleeps the same

All people sleep in exactly the same way, and in absolutely the same way they cannot do without sleep. We forget dreams because our brain is like a computer, which has an incompatibility with certain files - an encoding problem; let's say the same when we can't upload some non-standard video to YouTube.

By latest research, all our dreams, even if we feel them as very long or several of them per night, last very long. short term in reality - a few seconds before waking up (not necessarily in the morning, you can wake up in the middle of the night). That is, all our flights in a dream, incredible travels and great loves rush through the present time at an incredible speed. This circumstance prevents us from remembering our dreams in all details, and sometimes completely erases the picture from memory. Our brain is able to remember a maximum of three dreams a week, and even then it is completely fuzzy.

According to research, those dreams that we remember most vividly reflect our real dreams. What is a dream final decision scientists have never found it, but by default, sleep can be called the encoding of everyday information and dreams into our subconscious.

Two phases of sleep

In a dream, our body, like a global machine, begins to work in a completely different mode. So, for example, the state of sleep is divided into two phases: slow and fast. Slow is from 75 to 80% of the total time of our rest, during this period, the processes that are usually active during wakefulness slow down, the heart beats less often, breathing becomes more rare, activity decreases digestive system, body temperature decreases. Moreover, the muscles also relax to the maximum - this process, by the way, can be noticed even before falling asleep - you probably noticed how our limbs twitch from time to time. For the most part, athletes and dancers are subject to reflex movements - their muscles undergo a much greater load during the day than other, “ordinary” people.

As for the fast phase, everything happens the other way around here: the heart beat quickens, the pressure rises. Many scientists are sure that it is during the fast phase that our brain processes the information received over the past day. Dreams, it must be said, can be dreamed of by us both in the fast and in the slow phase, however, they are very different from each other. In fast we see vivid, emotionally colored dreams, sometimes indecipherable - in other words, a set of pictures. But in the slow phase, dreams become much more meaningful, realistic, as close as possible in content to the period of wakefulness, which is why, in slow sleep, it is sometimes impossible to distinguish dreams from reality. But if you wake up a person at the stage of REM sleep, he, no doubt, will remember his dream in great detail. And in the slow - no.

Where do our nightmares come from?

A nightmare is always bad, in other words, if you see bad dreams too often, you can be sure that your body is giving you warning signals. As a rule, systematic nightmares indicate neurosis, increased emotionality and other mental disorders. “Random” nightmares are a sign of overwork, stress. Unpleasant dreams can occur in both fast and slow phases. The only thing is that being in the fast phase, you, as a rule, can be aware that you are sleeping, you have a nightmare. Moreover, you realize it so much that by an effort of will you can force yourself to wake up.

As for the slow phase, everything is much more complicated here. Since our dreams become more realistic in the slow period, perception changes, which means that it is not always possible to persuade ourselves to wake up.

But conditionally good news lies in the fact that you have already watched the lion's share of your nightmares. It turns out that children are more prone to nightmares than adults. Scientists have proven that from 3 to 8 years old, children have more nightmares than adults in their entire lives. And this is a reason to treat our children and their random night tears even a little more carefully.

Black and white dreams

It turns out that not all people can see colored dreams. However, there are very few lucky ones whose dreams are always monochrome. Studies from 1915 to the 1950s show that 12% of sighted people see only black and white dreams. The picture has changed since the 1960s. Today, 4.4% of people see black and white dreams.

Some interesting facts

We dream only of what we have seen. Sometimes, completely unfamiliar faces appear in our dreams. In fact, no matter how paradoxical it may sound, in a dream we see only what we know. Just imagine - hundreds of people pass by us every day, and every face they see is imprinted in our subconscious - in reality, we will quickly forget “unnecessary” information, but in a dream the brain may well helpfully slip it to us.

Dreams are seen by all healthy people. All people (except perhaps the sick, with serious mental changes) have dreams, however, according to research, men and women dream differently. Men mostly dream of representatives of their own sex, while women in dreams see representatives of both sexes in approximately the same proportion.

The blind also dream. If a person has lost his sight after birth, throughout his life he may dream of pictures “from past life”, as for those who suffer from an illness from the cradle, their dreams are filled with sounds, smells and tactile sensations.

Dreams prevent neurosis. Dreams are a reflection of our desires - both conscious and subconscious. It is dreams that help protect our nervous system. Relatively recently, a team of psychologists conducted an experiment: a group of volunteers were allowed to sleep for eight hours a day, however, they woke them up whenever the dream period began. After a short time, the volunteers began to hallucinate in regular time days, to be nervous for no reason, to show aggression.

Mental disorders can be diagnosed with the help of dreams. A few years ago, the popular journal Neurology presented evidence that such mental illness, like Parkinson's disease and schizophrenia, long before their first real manifestation, they make themselves felt in dreams. The fact is that patients with these diseases, the cause of which lies in neurodegenerative disorders, constantly have nightmares, for which screams, blows, crying and groans reigning in a dream are especially characteristic.

the first three or four years of life. Plus, we generally remember quite a bit about ourselves before the age of seven. “No, well, I still remember something,” you say, and you will be absolutely right. Another thing is that, upon reflection, it can be difficult to understand in question about real memories or about second-order memories based on photographs and stories of parents.

The phenomenon known as "childhood amnesia" has been a mystery to psychologists for over a century. In spite of great amount information that can be used and technological developments, scientists still cannot say for sure why this is happening. Although there are a number popular theories which seem to them the most plausible.

The first reason is the development of the hippocampus

It might seem that the reason we don't remember ourselves in infancy is because babies and toddlers don't have full . But in fact, The Conversation adds, babies as young as 6 months old can form both short-term memories that last for minutes and long-term memories associated with events. recent weeks and even months.

In one study, 6-month-olds who learned to push a lever to operate a toy train remembered how to perform the action within 2-3 weeks of being in last time saw the toy. And preschoolers, according to another study, are able to remember what happened several years ago. But here, experts explain, again the question remains open: are these autobiographical memories or memories obtained with the help of someone or something.

The truth is that memory capabilities in childhood are indeed not the same as in adulthood (in fact, memory continues to develop into adolescence). And this is one of the most popular explanations for "childhood amnesia." It is important to understand that memory is not only the formation, but also the maintenance and subsequent retrieval of memories. At the same time, the hippocampus, the region of the brain responsible for all of this, continues to evolve. at least up to seven years old.

It is also interesting that the typical border of "childhood amnesia" at 3-4 years, apparently, shifts with age. There is evidence that children and adolescents generally have more early memories than adults. And this, in turn, suggests that the issue may be less about the formation of memories, but more about their preservation.

The second reason is language proficiency

Second important factor that plays a role in childhood memories is language. Between the ages of one and six, children mostly go through difficult process formation of speech to free (or even languages, if we are talking about bilinguals). Scientists believe that the assumption that the ability to speak affects the ability to remember (here we include the presence of the words “remember”, “remember” in the lexicon) is to some extent true. In other words, the level of language proficiency in a particular period partially affects how well a child will remember this or another event.

This allows us to speak, for example, a study conducted with the participation of babies delivered to the department emergency care. As a result, children over 26 months of age who could recount the event at the time remembered it five years later, while children under 26 months of age who could not speak remembered little or nothing at all. That is, preverbal memories are indeed more likely to be lost if they are not translated into language.

Reason three - cultural characteristics

Unlike simple exchange information, memories revolve around social function sharing experiences with others. Thus, family stories maintain the availability of memory over time, as well as increase the coherence of the narrative, including the chronology of events, their theme, and.

Maori, the natives of New Zealand, have the earliest childhood memories - they remember themselves as early as the age of 2.5 years. The researchers believe that this is due to the logic of the storytelling of Maori mothers and the tradition of telling family stories with early age. Data analysis on the topic also shows that adults in cultures that value autonomy ( North America, Western Europe) tend to report earlier childhood memories than adults in cultures that value wholeness and connectedness (Asia, Africa).

Why, along with the death of a person, his wrist watch?
Why don't we remember our childhood and how we were born?
- Why do we sometimes see colorless flies flying in the air?
- Why are we so annoyed by the sound of our own voice in the recording?
Why do men have nipples too?
- Why do Armenians have surnames with YAN?

To teaching questions to which I did not know the answers ... and voila! Digging in nete they found! Maybe someone besides me will be interested)

1. Why does a person's wrist watch stop with the death of a person?

Investigators, especially those who are involved in solving murders, know that often at the same time as the death of a person, his watch stops. Even if they did not receive mechanical damage. The fact is that, being on the hand for a long time, a metal watch, perhaps (especially with an iron or leather strap on the left hand) becomes part of electromagnetic field of a person, as it were, are included in the electrical circuit, playing the role of a kind of grounding. All the energy of the body flows to this end point (in electronics, such a part is called a terminator, or a plug).

Gradually, after a few months of wearing, the terminator watch acquires the charge of the human field, is fed by it. The energy of the compressed spring is supplemented by the energy of the human field.
If a mechanical watches not in order, maybe you need to go first not to the workshop, but to see a doctor!

It should be remembered that this is just a theory and there is no documented evidence for this, despite the statements of the investigators. Therefore, the article was classified under the heading "Other".

2. Why don't we remember our childhood and how we were born?
The term "infantile amnesia" was coined by Sigmund Freud in 1899. According to Freud, adults are not able to remember the events of the first 3-5 years of their life, since during the first years of life the child experiences aggressive and often sexual impulses towards his parents. But this idea was one-sided and did not take root.

Perhaps the main cause of childhood amnesia is the differences in the coding of the information received in children and adults. And if an adult is able to store a lot of data in memory, then in a child they periodically disappear.

The process of forming memories is handled by the network nerve cells, which is created in 6-18 months. At this stage, short-term and long-term memory appears. But if our memory has already reached right level why do we forget our childhood? It turns out that this is due to the lack of the ability to connect events with words, since we still do not know how to speak, and we do not know the words that can describe any event.

3. Why do we sometimes see colorless flies flying in the air?
Many people see colorless "flies" flying in the air, especially when looking at a bright illuminated surface, for example, clear sky. This effect has a scientific name - destruction of the vitreous body. Ideally, the vitreous body of our eye is a transparent gelatinous substance, but due to illness, injury, increased eye strain, or simply age-related changes individual fibers in it thicken and lose transparency, which is perceived by us as flies. Usually, the destruction of the vitreous body is not dangerous and does not cause complications, but if the flies appear very abruptly, accompanied by flashes of light, this may indicate an imminent retinal detachment, which leads to blindness.

4. Why are we so annoyed by the sound of our own voice in the recording?

For many of us, hearing the sound of our own voice on a recording is a challenge. We don't recognize him, and we don't like him at all. It is thinner, taller and generally quite nasty. The recording cannot lie, which means that those around us hear our voice exactly like that.

This is explained by the fact that sound makes a certain path before getting into our inner ear. Every sound we hear is vibrations propagating through the air. The inner ear "catches" these vibrations and "poureds" them into the head through the external auditory canal, where they set the eardrums in motion.

Then these vibrations penetrate the inner ear and turn into signals that are transmitted along the auditory nerve to the brain, where they are decoded. However, the inner ear picks up not only those vibrations that come from the outside through the ear canal. It also perceives those vibrations that arise inside the body. Therefore, when you speak yourself, you hear a combination of these two kinds of vibrations. Sound is transmitted differently in different media. This explains the discrepancy that is so annoying when you hear your own voice in the recording.

5. Why do Armenian surnames always end with "yan", "yants"?
Armenian surnames usually end in -yan or -yants, which means belonging (in this case, to the genus). So, -ants (-yants) is the ending genitive plural(compare "nranz" - them). In modern Armenian the suffix -yan is used to form adjectives, for example, "moskovyan" - Moscow, "kievyan" - Kyiv. So, the surname "Sarkisyan" means belonging to the Sarkis family.

6. Why do men have nipples - what is their purpose?
Why are they needed for non-breastfeeding men? Consider the most common versions of their need. Immediately make a reservation that none of the versions is a scientifically proven fact.

So, according to one version, men need nipples for beauty. Indeed, the representative of the stronger sex without this part of the body looks, to put it mildly, not aesthetically pleasing. But the concepts of aesthetics and beauty are purely human, existing only in the minds of people. In nature, everything is thought out, and every organ plays certain role necessary for the maintenance and continuation of life on earth.

For the same reason, the version that nipples are necessary to cause pain and injury (if you grab the enemy by them and twist them) looks unfounded.
WHY do men have nipples? Many consider the nipples as an erogenous zone. But men have enough other organs involved in the excitation and occurrence sexual desire. Some men are generally annoyed by any touch on the chest. Some consider the presence of nipples as a "legacy" from the distant past, when all people were asexual creatures. According to this version, nipples are an organ that has lost its functions in the process of human development (rudiment).

An interesting fact is that, theoretically, males can have milk for breastfeeding. But the male hormonal background does not create for this favorable conditions. For full feeding, a certain amount of female hormones (estrogens) is necessary. Indeed, in life and medical practice there are men with abnormally enlarged breasts. This phenomenon is called gynecomastia and is associated with an excess of estrogen in the body, hormonal abnormalities. Gynecomastia is common with alcoholism.

Normally, the development of the mammary glands and nipples in boys is inhibited even in the early stages, and they acquire an unfinished appearance of the female breast. main function chest protection remains internal organs(first of all - the heart and lungs) from external adverse factors.

Scientifically substantiated is the version of the intrauterine formation of the nipples. According to scientists, between 10 and 15 weeks of fetal development, male and female embryos are exactly the same. After this period, a surge of hormones occurs, which are determined by the presence of male or female chromosomes in the fetus. This is followed by the formation of gender differences.

Nipples, along with arms, legs and other body parts, appear in fetuses of both sexes before the hormonal explosion. Thus, the presence of nipples in men is explained biological processes embryonic development of the fetus.

A PHOTO Getty Images

Why don't we remember our dreams? This is also strange because dreams can be much more vivid and intense than everyday life. If some of the events that take place in a dream happened to us in reality - for example, a fall from a roof or a romantic relationship with a movie star - this story would definitely remain in our memory (not to mention the social media feed).

There are several theories that help to understand why dreams are so quickly erased from memory. On the one hand, forgetting is a process that is extremely necessary from the point of view of evolution: for caveman a dream that, while running away from a lion, he jumped off a cliff, would not end in anything good. Other evolutionary theory, developed by DNA discoverer Francis Crick, reads: main function dreams - forgetting unnecessary memories that accumulate in the brain over time.

We also forget dreams because we are not accustomed to remembering what happened in a dream. We are used to the fact that our past is organized chronologically, linearly: first one thing happened, then another, a third ... Dreams are chaotic, full of associations and random, illogical turns.

In addition, everyday life, the need to get up on an alarm clock and immediately rush to do business does not contribute to remembering dreams - the first thing we think about (if we think at all) after waking up: “Where to start, what should I do today?”. Because of this, dreams dissipate like smoke.

What to do to remember a dream?

Before going to bed, set two alarms: one to wake up completely, the other (musical) to focus on what you saw in a dream (the second should ring a little earlier than the first).

1. Before going to bed, put a pen and a piece of paper on the bedside table near the bed. Or use the app Notebook» on your smartphone: write everything you remember until you start to forget.
2. When the “musical” alarm rings and you reach for paper and pencil, try to move as little as possible.
3. Remember the feeling of sleep, its mood, write down what comes to mind. Do it in a free form, do not give events a sequence.
4. Keep a notebook nearby throughout the day: perhaps the dream will continue to "flirt" with us. Flirty sleep is a term coined by Arthur Mindell: Shards of sleep can appear throughout the day or even several days, "teasing" us and our brain.
5. When you learn to replay your dreams, it will be much easier for you to remember them.