RECOGNITION MEMORY IN 3-DAY-OLD TO 4-DAY-OLD HUMAN NEONATES

IT has been recently established in both adult monkeys and humans that visual recognition memory, as assessed with a preferential visual fix ation technique, depends on the integrity of the neural structures sit uated in the medial part of the temporal lobe. This kind of memory has been observed in infant monkeys not earlier than day 15. Using a fami liarization technique we established that this recognition memory is p resent in human infants as early as postnatal day 3 when a 2-min reten tion interval is used. This visual recognition memory might be control led by subcortical structures. The possibility that the medial tempora l structure involved in adult visual memory is operating at birth cann ot, however, be ruled out.