Brain Decoding from a Deep Neural Network of Visual Memory Reveals the Maturation Trajectory of Memory Systems across Ages 3-7

Children’s memory maturation score becomes adult-like around age 4 in a movie-watching fMRI dataset, with hippocampal structure and region-specific trajectories shaping cross-decodability.

• Why it matters: Infantile amnesia leaves early experiences inaccessible in adulthood, but the neural development that supports early memory formation remains unclear.
• What they did: A cross-validated model trained on adults’ movie-evoked fMRI activity used ResMem to estimate adult visual memorability, then applied to children (ages 3–7) to compute memory maturation from adult-pattern cross-decodability.
• The result: Left posterior hippocampus volume predicted memory maturation, and functional searchlights showed a progression: inferior temporal gyrus from age 3, left posterior hippocampus by age 5, and social-affective/multimodal regions by age 7.

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