Question: can people access old memorys from when they were young as they get older or are they held somewhere they cant access?

Alex Reid answered on 5 Nov 2018:

Fascinating question, thank you. ‘Forgetting’ is actually a whole area of psychology and it can happen in a number of ways. One such way is how you mention. As weird as it sounds memories can be trapped in your head but you have no way to access them (they are ‘forgotten’). This can happen at all ages but older people can have particular issues with memory retrieval. In some cases you might need a strong cue to re access a memory, such as a smell (in fact smells are really good at doing this). In older people some brain structures may not work as well as your young fresh brain, and making and storing new memories can be harder. This might happen to you too later in life so be kind to your parents and grandparents when they forget where they put their car keys! While I know a little bit about this, you should also ask Nadine, as her research relates more directly to older people and memory.