Memory formation influenced by how brain networks develop during youth

• As our brains mature, two key memory regions’ precise communication boost formation of lasting memories
• Study suggests how ‘your brain is learning to multitask as you get older’
• ‘By understanding how something comes to be — memory, in this instance — it gives us windows into why it eventually falls apart’

In a new, rare study of direct brain recordings in children and adolescents, a Northwestern Medicine scientist and colleagues from Wayne State University have discovered as brains mature, the precise ways by which two key memory regions in the brain communicate make us better at forming lasting memories. The findings also suggest how brains learn to multitask with age. 

The study was published Feb. 15 in Current Biology.

Historically, a lack of high-resolution data from children’s brains have led to gaps in our understanding of how the developing brain forms memories. The study innovated the use of intracranial electroencephalogram (iEEG) on pediatric patients to examine how brain development supports memory development.