Chapter 57

Question 1

How long do short term memories last? What happens to them after that?

Answer 1

• seconds to minutes
• lost if not stored

Question 2

How long do intermediate long-term memories last?

Answer 2

• minutes to weeks
• again lost if not stimulated enough to be sotred

Question 3

How long after long-term momories are stored can they be recalled?

Answer 3

-years or even a lifetime

Question 4

What are the two classifications of memories?

Answer 4

• declarative memory
• skill memory

Question 5

What is declariative memory?

Answer 5

memory of the various details of an intergrated thought such as:

• memory of the surroundings
• time relationships
• causes fo the experience
• meaning of the experience
• one’s deductions left in the mind

Question 6

What is skill memory? What is a good example of it?

Answer 6

-motor activities of the person’s body–> like the skills developed for hitting a tennis ball…or riding a bike!

Question 7

If habituation a “negative” type or “positive” type memory? Why?

Answer 7

-Habituation is a “negative” type memory.

Question 8

What is an example of “positive” memory?

Answer 8

-a stimulus that evokes either pleasure or pain and the brain feels is worth remembering

Question 9

What is sensitization?

Answer 9

-a process resulting from faciliation of synaptic pathways in a positive memory

Question 10

What is an example of short term memory? What is the proposed mechanism of this ability?

Answer 10

• a phone number or whatever was written on this card
• continual neural activity that travels around and around a memory tract called a circuit of reverberating neurons

Question 11

What are intermediate long-term memories? What causes them?

Answer 11

• last minutes to weeks and lost unless the memory traces are activated enough to become more permanent
• temporary chemical or physical changes in the pre or post synaptic neuron

Question 12

What is believed to cause long term memory?

Answer 12

Structural changes in the synapse

• increase in vesical release sites or amount
• changes in numbers of presynaptic terminals

changes in structures of the dendritic spines

Question 13

What are some of the physical changes that occur with long term memories?

Answer 13

-increase in vesical release sites or amount

-changes in numbers of presynaptic terminals

changes in structures of the dendritic spines

Question 14

What does the hippocampus do for memory?

Answer 14

-promotes storage of memories, especially those that are verbal or symbolic in nature

Question 15

What other structures are important in memory storage?

Answer 15

Dorsal medial nucleus of the thalamus

Question 16

What is the molecular cause of habituation?

Answer 16

• results from progressive closure of Ca channels through the terminal membrane.
• decreases the number of action potentials and therefore the release of NT

Question 17

What is the molecular cause of facilitation?

Answer 17

stimulation of the presynaptic terminal causes serotonin release–> activation of adenyl cyclase at the sensory terminal membrane–> incrase in cAMP inside the presynaptic terminal–> cAMP activates a protein kinase that indirectily blocks K channels–> blocked K channels can not open and increase action potential tim in the synaptic terminal–> increased Ca influx–> more NT release

Question 18

What is the difference between anterograde and retrograde amnesia?

Answer 18

• Anterograde (antero means “in front of or ahead of” in latin) amnesia: inability to create new memories
• Retrograde (retro meaning “behind” in latin) amnesia: inability to recall memories from the past