2.6 - Types of Memories + Alzheimers/Aphantasia Flashcards
Episodic + Semantic =
autobiographical event
-Episodic component of autobiographical events allows for the events to be remembered in rich detail
Semantic
knowledge or facts
Days of the week
Episodic
autobiographical events
First day of school, holiday birthday party
Alzheimer’s Disease
irreversible, progressive and fatal neurodegenerative disease that attacks the brain and kills brain cells, causing severe cognitive and behavioural decline, eventually resulting in death
Alzheimer’s Disease: earliest damage
HIPPOCAMPUS
o Events (episodic memories)
o Words, names, directions, narratives, stores knowledge (semantic memories)
Alzheimer’s Disease: later damage
CEREBRAL CORTEX AND CEREBELLUM
o Everyday skills (procedural memories)
o This affects attention, memory, learning and higher cognitive abilities
Alzheimer’s Disease: Symptoms
*A decrease in cognitive functions, such as the ability to plan, problem-solve, think logically
*Personality change
*Changes in mood and emotion
*Frequently becoming confused or disoriented
*Difficulty with language and communication
Alzheimer’s Disease: Brain
Amyloid plaques
Neurofibrillary tangles
Cortisol shrinkage
Amyloid Plaqyes (outside neuron)
abnormal clusters of beta-amyloid fragments that collect on the outside of nerve cells, destroying the synapses and the conduction of nerve impulses
Neurofibrillary tangles (inside neuron)
twisted strands of Tau protein found in the centre of dead and dying nerve cells
Alzheimer’s Disease: Episodic and Semantic Memory
*Damage = associated with hippocampus -> may struggle to remember semantic and episodic components of personally experienced events
*Lacked capacity to draw an episodic and semantic memories in order to plan and construct new future scenarios
Aphantasia
phenomenon in which individuals lack the capacity to generate mental imagery
