How the perceptual/sensory memories of infants and young children endure long into
adulthood has been the subject of much clinical speculation and artistic expression
from Proust’s evocative madeleine to Truman Capote’s Christmas memories of making
and delivering fruitcakes with his beloved Sook. What makes each of these literary
accounts notable is the relation between early stress and loss in the children’s/authors’
lives and their enduring memories strongly rooted in olfactory and other sensory cues.
In this issue, Sevelinges et al. (pages 1070–1079) bring basic science to these descriptions. Their report on the
long-term effects of infant memories on adult learning and stress response adds an
important new line of work to a growing literature on the enduring effect of early
stressors on adult functioning. This report also has important implications for clinicians
and clinical investigators.
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Article info
Publication history
Accepted:
October 4,
2007
Received:
September 14,
2007
Footnotes
Dr. Mayes reported no potential conflicts of interest.
Identification
Copyright
© 2007 Society of Biological Psychiatry. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
