Chapter 12: Learning and Memory Flashcards
exam 3 material
what is non-associative learning?
involves changes in the magnitude of responses to stimuli rather than the formation of connections between specific elements or events
habituation vs sensitization
habituation: occurs when an organism reduces its response to unchanging, harmless stimuli
sensitization: occurs when repeated exposure to a strong stimulus increases response to other environmental stimuli
what is classical conditioning?
when organisms learn that stimuli act as signals to predict the occurrence of other important events
conditioned vs unconditioned responses, conditioned vs unconditioned stimulus
CR: behaviors that must be learned (salivating in response to the bell)
UCR: response that appears without prior experience to a stimulus (salivation in response to food)
CS: a stimulus that can eventually trigger a conditioned response (the ringing bell)
UCS: automatic response to a stimulus (food)
what is operant conditioning?
when organisms form connections between a behavior and its consequences that impact the subsequent frequency of that behavior, reinforcing and punishing consequences increase and decrease likelihood of repeating the behavior
what are the steps in the memory process?
encoding, consolidation, retrieval, and reconsolidation
declarative vs nondeclarative memory
declarative: ability to actively recall semantic (facts of the world) or episodic (personal experiences) memories
nondeclarative: automatically performed without actively recalling a memory
what does habituation look like in aplysia?
gill-withdrawal reflex, reduced activity at synapse between sensory and motor neurons, direct result of decreased neurotransmitter release
what does sensitization look like in aplysia?
a stimulus gains the ability to influence more than one neural pathway, increased neurotransmitter release by
sensory neuron
what does classical conditioning look like in aplysia?
sequential activation of sensory neurons by CS and UCS leads to greater neurotransmitter release
what does operant conditioning look like in aplysia?
results when an organism’s naturally occurring behavior becomes more or less frequent in response to its
consequences, changes what had been a fairly
random pattern of behavior into a more reliable, stereotyped pattern
what is consolidation?
occurs in the hippocampus, memories being solidified from short-term memory to long-term memory, storage and retrieval of explicit memories
what is long-term potentiation?
a type of synaptic plasticity in which the application of a rapid series of electrical shocks to an input pathway
increases the postsynaptic potentials recorded in target neurons
what are the two properties of long-term potentiation?
specificity: high activity produces LTP in synapses
that are active but not in neighboring synapses that are inactive
associativity: if a strong stimulus is applied to a strong synapse at the same time as the same weak stimulus is applied to a weak synapse both synapses are strengthened
how does long-term potentiation work in spatial memory?
single-cell recordings taken while an animal freely
explores a new space provide insight into spatial map formation, single-cell recordings in rodents show that hippocampal spatial maps are formed within minutes of entering a new environment and remain stable for months
how does working memory work?
during the initial, unstable phase following an LTP stimulus, additional GluA1 (AMPA) receptors are inserted into the postsynaptic membrane
in the later, more stable phase, the GluA2 receptors become more important
disrupting GluA1 receptor activity impairs working memory in rats
what is the molecular mechanism of memory consolidation?
LTP causes transcription to start, cAMP response element binding protein (CREB) is a transcription factor that when disrupted could contribute to age-related declines in memory like dementia and Alzheimer’s disease
what are reactivation and reconsolidation?
reactivation is bringing a memory back into your working memory and reconsolidation is re-storing it back into long-term storage
what neural systems are involved in classical conditioning?
cerebellum is important in classical conditioning and receives input from the medulla and pons, purkinje cells influence the output of the cerebellum, learning will occur if the climbing-fiber and parallel-fiber synapsing onto a purkinje cell are activated at the same time, information about the CS travels to cerebellar cortex via mossy and parallel fibers, while information about UCS is provided by the climbing fibers
what neural systems are involved in classical conditioning of fear?
sensory information about a conditioned stimulus (CS) converges on the lateral nucleus of the amygdala, output from the central nucleus of the amygdala results in defensive behaviors (CRs) such as freezing
what is extinction?
conditioned responding will gradually decrease, or undergo extinction, when the CS is presented repeatedly without the UCS, extinction does not involve forgetting but rather represents new learning
what part of the brain is important in episodic memory?
information about personal experiences takes place in the temporal lobe
what is the delayed nonmatching to sample (DNMS) task?
standard test of memory in which the subject must identify the novel member of a stimulus pair following a delay, monkeys with medial temporal lobe damage appear to have difficulty forming new memories and subsequently perform poorly on the task
what is semantic memory and where does it take place?
our basic knowledge of facts and language, widely distributed in the cortex, anterior temporal lobe appears to act as a “hub” serving semantic cognition
what neural systems are involved in working memory?
dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) and anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) provide important attentional aspects of short-term memory, act as the “executive” of working memory, patients with prefrontal lesions can learn a sorting rule—for example, “put all the cards with the same-colored objects together”—but they can’t seem to adjust when the rule changes
how does stress effect memory?
valence (positive or negative) and level of
arousal usually predict the vividness and strength of resulting memories for an event, epinephrine, norepinephrine, and cortisol
release in response to stress change how the brain processes memory, stress (usually resulting from trauma) can also impair memory formation (e.g., repressed memories)
how does aging effect memory?
working memory functions, the ability to form new
episodic memories, and reaction time all typically
decline in healthy older adults, may be do to a deterioration of white matter, measures of cognitive ability in adults remain the same, this may be due to a reorganization of the brain that allows cognitive performance to remain stable in spite of age-related deficits in function
how can MDMA influence PTSD?
MDMA stimulates release of monoamines, hormones,
and signaling molecules that modulate emotional
memory circuits engaged in reprocessing of traumatic
memories, may allow for reprocessing of traumatic
memories and emotional engagement with
therapeutic processes
