Chapter 4: Amnesia Flashcards
What are the two historical approaches the memory?
behaviorist
cognitivist
What is the behaviorist approach to memory?
stimulus-stimulus or stimulus-response (S-R) linkage
chaining
Skinner, and Watson
What is the cognitivist approach to memory?
use of ideation
use of prior knowledge
Tolman, Bartlett
How did Tolman’s maze demonstrate latent learning?
- let the rats explore the maze
- put a piece of food, the rats go straight to the food
- then put a block at position A so the rats could go through either path 2 or path 3 to get food; through S-R should be a 50/50 chance, but most rats took path 2 cause its shorter, first clue to cognition
- then put the block at position B, so rats can’t take path 2; the rats took path 3 cause they recognized that path 2 won’t work even though its shorter
What is amnesia?
the loss, absence, or dysfunction of memory in the absence of other cognitive symptoms
What is “organic” or damage-induced amnesia?
memory was fine, then damage occurred
Ribot (damage), Korsakoff (alcohol), Alzheimer (aging)
Scoville and Milner: H.M.
What is substance-induced amnesia?
Flunitrazepam (Rohypnol)
through drugs
What is functional amnesia?
not physiological
post-traumatic stress disorder
What part of the brain was removed in H.M.?
he had intractable MTL epilepsy
bilateral removal of MTL
What anterograde and retrograde memory impairments did H.M. have?
temporally graded retrograde amnesia: only the experiences around the surgery were affected
robust and complete anterograde amnesia: no new memories after surgery, not totally because he showed some memorization
What are the impaired tasks associated with medial temporal lobe damage?
free (distracted) recall
What are the unimpaired tasks associated with medial temporal lobe damage?
short-term (undistracted) recall, cued recall: parts of words as prompts, <15 minutes he was able to recall
priming: word stem completion, partial pictures
skill learning: mirror drawing
habits: motor sequence learning (like tying shoes)
classical conditioning: eye blink, puff of air associated with a tone
What are the selective memory deficits associated with medial temporal lobe damage?
some temporally graded retrograde amnesia; events/knowledge recent (not remote) to surgical procedure lost, episodic and semantic, old vs. recent addresses, old vs. recent vocabulary
profound anterograde amnesia: unable to form new memories, episodic and semantic, new addresses, new vocabulary
implicit memory unimpaired: procedural tasks
What is the permanence of “organic” amnesia?
chronic vs. transient
What is the globalization of “organic” amnesia?
multimodal vs. unimodal
What are the temporal aspects of “organic” amnesia?
short term vs. long term
anterograde vs. retrograde memories
In what ways is “organic” amnesia dissociative?
specific to memory
specific to a subtype of memory
declarative (episodic and semantic) vs. procedural
knowing what vs. knowing how
What brain systems are affected by “organic” amnesia?
medial temporal lobe (MTL)
diencephalon
basal forebrain
What are the types of memory?
intact procedural vs. declarative
implies different brain structures involved
consciousness (cognition?) important for certain types of memory
unconscious, implicit memory exists
both behaviorism and cognitive were correct
What are the different time courses of memory?
intact short-term vs. long-term memory: implies short-term processes do not need MTL (do not occur at the same brain structure), involvement of other brain structures?
anterograde vs. retrograde disturbance: implies MTL circuitry important, but only temporarily, process of consolidation involving interactions with other brain structures
Who was patient E.P.?
viral encephalopathy, similar lesion to H.M.
similar deficits and sparing
Who was Jimmie G?
Korsakoff’s syndrome
damage to limbic structures
very similar memory syndrome
Who was patient R.B.?
global ischemia - CA1 damage (not all of the MTL cortex was affected)
episodic vs. semantic deficits
hippocampal specific damage?
What are the two types memory can be broken into?
declarative (explicit): MTL, diencephalon
procedural (implicit)
