5.15 - Learning and Memory

Question 1

What is (and is not) the role of the hippocampus in memory?

Answer 1

1. Important for obtaining new declarative memories
2. Not necessary for the formation of non-declarative and procedural memories.
3. Not necessary for immediate memory
4. Not involved in the storage of memory

Question 2

What is the function of grid cells and where can we find them in the brain?

Answer 2

We can find grid cells in the Entorhinal cortex

They are involved in coding for the position in space.

Question 3

Define learning

Answer 3

The combined effect of encoding, storage, and retrieval that leads to enhancement of performance in a particular task

Question 4

What is habituation?

Answer 4

Diminished neuronal firing in response to a repeated (uninteresting) stimulus

Question 5

What is sensitization?

Answer 5

A form of non-associative learning that leads to a progressive increase in neuronal activity in response to a repeatedly presented stimulus

Question 6

A patient learns how to ride a bicycle after several days of training. However, she can not recall ever having learned to do so.

Which type of memory is impaired in this patient? Which type of memory is intact?

Answer 6

Declarative memory is impaired

Procedural memory is intact

Question 7

Hodgkin recalls the time he first met Huxley.

Which type of memory does he experience?

Answer 7

Episodic memory

Question 8

Classical conditioning is a type of _____ learning, subsumed under _____ memory

Answer 8

associative

implicit(non-declarative)

Question 9

What are the types of inputs to the hippocampus?

Answer 9

(1) Direct
(2) Trisynaptic

Question 10

Which direction does the information flow between the hippocampus and the association cortices?

Answer 10

The information flows bi-directionally:

Projections from the association cortices converge onto the hippocampus. There the information gets consolidated and is sent back to the association cortices.

Question 11

Consolidated memory can be retrieved from _____

Answer 11

the cortex

Question 12

What is the main difference between standard consolidation theory and multiple trace theory of consolidation?

Answer 12

The standard consolidation theory states that after the memories are consolidated in the hippocampus, they are transferred to the cortex and become independent of the hippocampus.

On the other hand, multiple trace theory states that the hippocampus is always involved in the retrieval and storage of memories, which are encoded in a unique trace upon every presentation.

Question 13

Watermaze is used to study _____ in mice.

Answer 13

spatial memory

Question 14

In a watermaze experiment, how does the mouse initially find a platform?

Answer 14

Through random exploration/detection

Question 15

What are place cells?

Answer 15

Cells within the hippocampus that have a preference for a specific location (place field) within the open field.

Image source: Latuske et al., 2018

Question 16

What is an engram?

Answer 16

A unit of cognitive information inside the brain theorized to be the means by which memories are stored as biophysical and biochemical changes in the brain.

Question 17

What are the limitations of eye-blink conditioning?

Answer 17

Time to stimulus has to be very short for a neuron to consider two events as correlated

Question 18

How can we affect memory formation?

Answer 18

(1) Emotion - dopamine involved in enhancing memory
(2) Attention - memory is attention-driven
(3) Association - previous experience affects memory formation by providing an existing framework for memory
(4) Repetition - more repetition ⇒ better retention

Question 19

What is the role of long-term depression in behavioral flexibility?

Answer 19

Long-term depression is required for behavioral flexibility. It appears to weaken previously encoded memory traces when new information is learned.