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PSYCH 275 > Chapter 14: Learning and Memory > Flashcards

Chapter 14: Learning and Memory Flashcards

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1
Q

How do we learn and remember?

A

connecting learning and memory

dissociating memory circuits

neural systems underlying explicit and implicit memories

structural basis of brain plasticity

recovery from brain injury

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2
Q

What are types of experiences that change the brain?

A

development, culture, preferences, coping

learning is common to these experiences

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3
Q

What is neuroplasticity?

A

the nervous system’s potential for physical or chemical change, which enhances its adaptability

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4
Q

What is learning?

A

a relatively permanent change in an organism’s behavior as a result of experience

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5
Q

What is memory?

A

the ability to recall or recognize previous experience

a mental representation of a previous experience

corresponds to a physical trace (engram) in the brain, most likely involving synapses

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6
Q

What is Pavlovian conditioning?

A

learning achieved when a neutral stimulus (such as a tone) comes to elicit a response after its repeated pairing with some event (such as delivery of food)

also called classical conditioning or respondent conditioning

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7
Q

What is an conditioned stimulus (CS)?

A

in Pavlovian conditioning, an originally neutral stimulus that triggers a conditioned response (CR) after association with an unconditioned stimulus

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8
Q

What is an unconditioned stimulus (UCS)?

A

a stimulus that naturally and automatically (unconditionally) triggers an unconditioned response (UCR)

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9
Q

What is an unconditioned response (UCR)?

A

unlearned, naturally occurring response to an unconditioned stimulus (UCS), such as salivation when food is in the mouth

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10
Q

What is a conditioned response (CR)?

A

in Pavlovian conditioning, the learned response to a formerly neutral conditioned stimulus

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11
Q

What is the eyeblink conditioning experiment?

A

a tone (CS) is associated with a painless puff of air (UCS) to a participant’s eye

blinking is a normal reaction (UCR) to a puff of air

learning has occurred when blinking is a response to the CS alone (CR)

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12
Q

What is operant conditioning?

A

learning procedure in which the consequences (such as obtaining a reward) of a particular behavior (such as pressing a bar) increase or decrease the probability of the behavior occurring again

also called instrumental conditioning

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13
Q

What was Thorndike’s puzzle box?

A

a cat gradually learned that its actions had consequences

on the initial trial, the cat touched the releasing mechanism only by chance as it restlessly paced inside the box

the cat learned that something it had done opened the door, and it tended to repeat its behaviors from just before the door opened

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14
Q

What is implicit memory?

A

unconscious memory

subjects demonstrate knowledge, such as a skill, conditioned response, or recalling events on prompting, but cannot explicitly retrieve the information

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15
Q

What is explicit memory?

A

conscious memory

subjects can retrieve an item and indicate that they know the retrieved item is the correct one

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16
Q

What is the pursuit-rotor task?

A

people with amnesia, a partial or total loss of memory, perform at normal on tests on implicit memory

presented with the same task a week later, both controls and amnesiacs take less time to perform it

amnesiacs fail to recall having performed the task before

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17
Q

What is declarative memory?

A

ability to recount what one knows, to detail the time, place, and circumstances of events; often lost in amnesia

same thing as explicit memory

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18
Q

What is procedural memory?

A

ability to recall a movement sequence or how to perform some act or behavior

same thing as implicit memory

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19
Q

How is implicit information processed?

A

implicit information is processed in a bottom-up, or data-driven, manner

information is encoded in the same way it was perceived

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20
Q

How is explicit information processed?

A

explicit information is processed in a top-down, or conceptually driven, manner

the subject recognizes the information before it is encoded

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21
Q

How are implicit and explicit tasks encoded in memory?

A

in implicit tasks, the person has a passive role, whereas in explicit tasks, the person has an active role

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22
Q

What is priming?

A

using a stimulus to sensitize the nervous system to a later presentation of the same or a similar stimulus, often used to measure implicit memory

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23
Q

What is short term memory?

A

few minutes

information is held in memory only briefly, then discarded; involves the frontal lobes

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24
Q

What is long term memory?

A

indefinite duration

information is held in memory indefinitely, perhaps for a lifetime; involves the temporal lobe

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25
Q

How is memory stored?

A

information from different sensory modalities (e.g. vision, audition) is processed and stored in different neural areas

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26
Q

What is episodic memory?

A

autobiographical memory for events pegged to specific place and time contexts

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27
Q

What is episodic amnesia?

A

inability to recall any personal experience

associated with frontal lobe injury or reduced blood flow to the frontal lobes

frontal loves may allow us to mentally travel through our past

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28
Q

What is highly superior autobiographical memory (HSAM)?

A

people display virtually complete recall for events in their lives, usually beginning around age 10

many can describe any episode, including the day of the week and the date

increased gray matter in the temporal and parietal lobes

increased size in the fiber projection between the temporal and frontal lobes

still vulnerable to distortions

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29
Q

What did Karl Lashley study regarding memory circuits?

A

searched in vain for the neural circuits underlying memories

severity of memory disturbance related to size, not location, of injury

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30
Q

What was discovered through the bilateral medial temporal lobe resection of H.M.?

A

seizures originated in the region of the amygdala, hippocampal formation, and associated subcortical structures, so Scoville removed them bilaterally

following surgery, H.M. had severe amnesia, lacking any explicit memory

he could not recall anything that happened after the surgery

despite this deficit, H.M. had an above-average IQ, performed well on perceptual tests, and could recall events from his childhood

H.M.’s performance on implicit memory tests was left intact

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31
Q

What is the parahippocampal cortex?

A

receives connections from the parietal cortex

believed to take part in visuospatial processing

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32
Q

What is the perirhinal cortex?

A

receives connections from the visual regions of the ventral stream

believed to take part in visual object memory

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33
Q

What is the entorhinal cortex?

A

located on the medial temporal lobe surface

provides a major route for neocortical input to the hippocampal formation

often degenerates in Alzheimer disease

34
Q

What is visuospatial memory?

A

using visual information to identify an object’s location in space

laboratory animals and human patients with selective hippocampal injury have severe deficits in various forms of spatial memory

monkeys with hippocampal lesions have difficulty learning the location of objects

35
Q

What does the hippocampus and spatial memory look like in animals?

A

animals with especially good spatial memory should have bigger hippocampi than do species with poorer spatial memories

the hippocampal formation in food-storing birds and rodents is larger than that of birds and rodents that do not store food

36
Q

What are the three classes of spatial cells in the rat and mouse hippocampus?

A

place cells

head direction cells

grid cells

37
Q

What are place cells in the rat and mouse hippocampus?

A

discharge when rats are in a spatial location regardless of orientation (hippocampus)

38
Q

What are head direction cells in the rat and mouse hippocampus?

A

cells discharge whenever a rat’s head points in a particular direction

39
Q

What are grid cells in the rat and mouse hippocampus?

A

discharge at many locations, forming a virtual grid invariant to changes in the rat’s direction, movement, or speed (entorhinal cortex)

40
Q

How are connections for explicit memory in the temporal lobe pathway reciprocal?

A

connections from the neocortex run to the entorhinal cortex and then back to the neocortex

signals from the medial temporal regions to the cortical sensory regions keep the sensory experience alive in the brain, the neural record outlasts the actual experience

pathway back to the neocortex means it is kept apprised of the information being processed in medial temporal regions

41
Q

What is the relationship between the frontal lobe and short term memory?

A

the frontal love appears to participate in many forms of short-term memory

all sensory systems project to the frontal lobes

during tasks in which monkeys must keep information in short-term memory over a delay, certain cells in the frontal cortex will fire throughout the delay (animals that have not learned the task show no such cell activity)

42
Q

What is Korsakoff syndrome?

A

permanent loss of the ability to learn new information (anterograde amnesia) and to retrieve old information (retrograde amnesia)

caused by diencephalic damage from chronic alcoholism or malnutrition that produces a vitamin B1 deficiency

80% of these patients show loss of frontal lobe cells

43
Q

What is the explicit memory circuit?

A

sensory/motor AREAS –> temporal regions –> medial thalamus & prefrontal cortex

temporal lobe/pfc are central to LTM formation

PFC central for ST explicit memories and recency of events

44
Q

How does the hippocampus consolidate memory?

A

in consolidation, or stabilizing a memory trace after learning, memories move from the hippocampus to diffuse regions in the neocortex

once memories move, hippocampal involvement is no longer needed

45
Q

What is distributed reinstatement theory?

A

a learning episode rapidly produces a stored memory representation that is strong in the hippocampus but weak elsewhere

the memory is replayed on the time scale of hours or days after learning, leading to enhanced representation outside the hippocampus

46
Q

What is reconsolidation?

A

restabilizing a memory trace after the memory is revisited

whenever a memory is replayed in the mind, it is open to further consolidation

new information is constantly being integrated into existing memory networks

it is possible to erase negative memories by using amnesic agents when the memory is revisited (e.g. in PTSD)

47
Q

What is the proposed neural circuit for explicit memory?

A
  1. temporal lobe structures
  2. frontal lobe structures
  3. medial thalamus
  4. basal forebrain - activating systems
48
Q

What is the proposed neural circuit for implicit memory?

A

basal ganglia

ventral thalamus

substantia nigra

premotor cortex

49
Q

What does the basal ganglia do in the neural circuit for implicit memories?

A

basal ganglia receive input from the entire neocortex and send projections first to the ventral thalamus and then to the premotor cortex

basal ganglia also receive widely and densely distributed projection from dopamine-producing cells in the substantia nigra

dopamine appears necessary for basal ganglia circuits to function and may indirectly participate in implicit memory formation

50
Q

What is the unconscious nature of implicit memory?

A

Mishkin believes that implicit memories are unconscious because the connections between the basal ganglia and cortex are unidirectional

basal ganglia receive information from the cortex but do not project back to the cortex

for memories to be conscious, there must be feedback to the cortex

the medial temporal lobe projects back to the cortex, so explicit memories are conscious

51
Q

What is emotional memory?

A

memory for the affective properties of stimuli or events

can be implicit or explicit

amygdala is critical for emotional memory

damage to the amygdala abolishes emotional memory but has little effect on implicit or explicit memory

we tend to remember emotionally arousing experiences vividly

emotionally driven neurochemical and hormonal activating systems (probably cholinergic and noradrenergic) stimulate the amygdala

52
Q

What does the amygdala do in the neural circuit for implicit memories?

A

the amygdala has close connections with medial temporal cortical structures as well as with the rest of the cortex

53
Q

Where does the amygdala send projections to in the neural circuit for implicit memory?

A

brainstem structures that control autonomic responses such as blood pressure and heart rate

the hypothalamus, which control hormonal system

periaqueductal gray matter (PAG), which affects pain perception

the basal ganglia, to tap into the implicit memory system

54
Q

What is the structural basis of memory?

A

at the neural level, memory is associated with changes that take place at the synapse

the synapse is where one neuron influences another neuron

55
Q

How do we find the neural correlated of memory?

A

determine how synaptic changes are correlated with memory in the mammalian brain

localize the synaptic changes to specific neural pathways

analyze the nature of the synaptic changes themselves

56
Q

What is associative learning?

A

linkage of two or more unrelated stimuli to elicit a behavioral response

neurons that fire together, wire together

57
Q

What is long-term potentiation (LTP)?

A

in response to stimulation at a synapse, changed amplitude of an excitatory postsynaptic potential that lasts for hours to days or longer

plays a part in associative learning

a strong burst of electrical stimulation applied to the presynaptic neuron produces an increase in the amplitude of the EPSP in the postsynaptic neuron

58
Q

What is field potential?

A

EPSPs from many neurons; recorded with extracellular electrodes

59
Q

What must happen for an EPSP to increase in size?

A

more neurotransmitter must be released from the presynaptic membrane

postsynaptic membrane must become more sensitive to the same amount of transmitter

60
Q

What is long-term depression (LTD)?

A

decrease in EPSP size

if LTP is a mechanism for forming memories, perhaps LTD is a mechanism for clearing out old memories

61
Q

What are the two types of receptors that glutamate acts on in the postsynaptic membrane?

A

AMPA (alpha-amino-3-hydroxy-5-methylisoxazole-4-proprionic acid) normally responds to glutamate

NMDA (N-methyl-D-aspartate) doubly gated channels, normally blocked by magnesium (Mg2+) ions

62
Q

What two events must occur together for NMDA receptors to open?

A

depolarization of postsynaptic membrane, which displaces Mg2+ from pore (strong electrical stimulus)

activation by glutamate from the presynaptic neuron (weak electrical stimulus)

strong and weak stimuli have been paired

63
Q

What happens after NMDA receptors open and Ca2+ enters the postsynaptic neuron?

A

increased responsiveness of AMPA receptors to glutamate

formation of new AMPA receptors

retrograde messengers that trigger more glutamate release from presynaptic neuron

64
Q

What neural processes underlie the persistent long-term changes of learning?

A

Ca2+ enters postsynaptic neuron and activates a second messenger (e.g. cyclic AMP)

cAMP alters gene expression in nucleus, which physically alters synapse, structural changes in the synapse (dendritic spines), formation or loss of synapses

65
Q

How does the brain modify existing circuits?

A

neurons change their structure in response to their changing experiences

changes in the number of dendrites can be used to infer synaptic changes, more dendrites provide more connections

new synapses can form between neurons that are already connected or between neurons that were not previously connected

66
Q

What is the evidence of the brain creating novel circuits?

A

predominant view prior to the mid-1990s, the mammalian brain does not make new neurons in adulthood

there is evidence that neurogenesis does occur in the mammalian brain: olfactory bulb, hippocampal formation, and possibly neocortex

reason for neurogenesis still unclear

67
Q

What is raising rats in enriched enclosures associated with?

A

increased brain weight

more dendrites

more astrocytes

more blood capillaries

more synapses per neuron

increased mitochondrial volume (marker of greater metabolic activity)

68
Q

How did Chang and Greenough (1982) manipulate experience experimentally?

A

placed patches over one eye of each rat so that the contralateral hemisphere was deprived of visual input

trained rats on a maze

the visual cortex of the trained hemisphere (the one that received input from the eye without the patch) had more extensive dendrites

69
Q

How did Nudo and colleagues (1997) manipulate experience experimentally?

A

had monkeys retrieve food from small or large food wells

small wells required dexterous movements of one or two fingers, whereas the monkeys could put their entire hand in the large wells

the digit representation on the motor cortex was larger for animals that had to retrieve food from the smaller wells

70
Q

What is an example of life experiences altering dendritic morphology?

A

career word processors have greater differences between finger and trunk neurons than do salesperson

71
Q

What is the epigenetic of memory?

A

specific sites in the DNA of neurons involved in specific memories might exist in either a methylated or nonmethylated state

fear conditioning is associated with rapid methylation, but if methylation was blocked, there was no memory

epigenetic mechanisms mediate synaptic plasticity broadly, especially in learning and memory

72
Q

What is the relationship between hormones and plasticity?

A

high levels of estrogen: more dendritic spines in the hippocampus

low levels of estrogen: more dendritic spines in neocortex but fewer in hippocampus

low levels of testosterone: more dendritic spines in neocortex

73
Q

What are glucocorticoids?

A

released from the adrenal cortex in times of stress

steady levels of glucocorticoids that are seen with prolonged stress may be neurotoxic

glucocorticoids can kill hippocampal cells

74
Q

What is nerve growth factor?

A

neurotrophic factor that stimulates neurons to grow dendrites and synapses and in some cases promotes the survival of neurons

75
Q

What is the brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF)?

A

may enhance plastic changes, such as the growth of dendrites and synapses

increased levels when animals learn to solve problems

76
Q

What is behavioral sensitization?

A

escalating behavioral response to the repeated administration of a psychomotor stimulant

sensitization is associated with an increased number of receptors, synapses, and dendrites

drug exposure alters brain response to experience

77
Q

What are the guiding principles of brain plasticity?

A

behavioral change reflects brain change

all nervous systems are plastic in the same general way

plastic changes are age specific

prenatal events can influence brain plasticity throughout life

plastic changes are brain-region dependent

experience-dependent changes interact (metaplasticity)

plasticity has pros and cons

78
Q

What are the three possible ways to recover from brain injury?

A

learn new ways to solve problems

recognize the brain to do more with less

generate new neurons to produce new circuits

79
Q

What is the three-legged cat solution to brain injury?

A

when a cat loses a leg, it usually can compensate, not by growing a new leg but rather by learning how to walk with only three legs

the same ability to compensate is also present in humans

a person who loses a certain ability, such as being able to write with the right hand, may be able to compensate by learning to write with the left hand

80
Q

What is the new-circuit solution to brain injury?

A

in response to injury, the brain can form new connections and do more with less

the amount of recovery is increased significantly if the person also engages in some form of intervention

behavioral therapy: speech or physiotherapy

pharmacological therapy: nerve growth factor, amphetamine

PSYCH 275 (11 decks)

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