Chapter Twelve

Question 1

learning

Answer 1

relatively stable change in behavior that is the result of experience

Question 2

memory

Answer 2

the process by which we encode, store, and retrieve information

Question 3

perceptual learning

Answer 3

recognition of stimuli you seen before

Question 4

stimulus-response learning

Answer 4

performing a behavior in the presence of stimulus

Question 5

motor learning

Answer 5

changes in the motor system as the result of experience

Question 6

relational learning

Answer 6

learning relationships between stimuli (spatial orientation)

Question 7

Classical Conditioning

Answer 7

US, UR, CS, CR

CR arises because of association with us

CS + US –> CR

Question 8

Hebb Rule (1949)

Answer 8

explains classical conditioning; excitatory connection –> puff of air makes you blink; physically makes the connection stronger

“if a synapse repeatedly becomes active at the same time a post-synaptic neuron fires, that synapse will be strengthened
-now called LTP –> long term potentiation

Question 9

Long Term Potentiation

Answer 9

if learning produces changes in the NS, it likely happens at level of synapse

Question 10

Changes where lead to long term synaptic changes?

Answer 10

hippocampal formation (limbic cortex in temporal lobe)

Question 11

What happens when you stimulate entorhinal cortex –> dendrite gyrus

Answer 11

leads to changes that could last for several months; specific stimulus (100 pulses within a few seconds)

Question 12

Why is the NMDA receptor important?

Answer 12

NMDA antagonists prevent LTP

Question 13

How does LTP plasticity occur?

Answer 13

increase in AMPA receptors (# of receptors); other structural changes in the synapse- new synapses might be formed

Question 14

What else do drugs block that block LTP?

Answer 14

they also block increase in AMPA receptors

Question 15

Can the strength of synapses be decreased??

Answer 15

yes- could be basis for extinction

Question 16

Perceptual Learning

Answer 16

learning WHAT a new object it, learning about the object in a different location, and learning about changes in a familiar object

Question 17

Recognition of Visual Stimuli (pathway)

Answer 17

optic nerve –> thalamus (DLGN) –> PVC –> ventral stream (what) –> and dorsal stream (where)

Question 18

Object memory retrieval task

Answer 18

altered screen contained a new object; activated the ventral stream

Question 19

spatial memory retrieval task

Answer 19

altered screen rearranged the objects; activated the dorsal stream

Question 20

What is activated during delay (in DMS and DNMS)

Answer 20

inferior temporal cortex fire

Question 21

where are the neurons located that encode memory for visual stimuli?

Answer 21

prefrontal cortex

Question 22

Conditoned emotional response

Answer 22

used the most because its easy to do;

ex: tone (CS) + punishment (US) –> freezing (CR)
CR can be made weaker through extinction-present CS by itself

Question 23

What is the amygdala important for?

Answer 23

CER learning

Question 24

Where is information about the tone (CS) sent from & to

Answer 24

sent from the thalamus (MGN) to the amygdala

Question 25

Where is information about footshock sent to?

Answer 25

both the MGN and amygdala

Question 26

what do lesions of the amygdala or MGN do?

Answer 26

disrupt CER learning

Question 27

Are there increased firing rates during CER learning in the amygdala?

Answer 27

yes

Question 28

Instrumental/Motor learning

Answer 28

learning that our behaviors are tied to outcomes; need to strengthen connections between regions that detect stimuli and regions that produce responses

Question 29

what pathway do we use as we learn new motor skills?

Answer 29

cortical pathways

Question 30

when the task we learn becomes automatic, which pathway do we use?

Answer 30

the one through the basal ganglia; this frees up the cortical pathways for other things that require mental concentration

Question 31

What part of the brain does PD effect?

Answer 31

the basal ganglia

Question 32

PD patients don’t have an inability to move but…

Answer 32

an inability to perform the response

Question 33

Rational Learning

Answer 33

more complex form of memory- for events, stimuli, and episodes you have experienced before

Question 34

Amnesia

Answer 34

occurs when a person suffers memory loss that is too extensive to be accounted for by everyday forgetting

Question 35

human anterograde amnesia

Answer 35

difficulty in learning/remembering new information; can be permanent

Question 36

which type of amnesia do people with head trauma get?

Answer 36

anterograde and retrograde

Question 37

Korsakoff’s Syndrome

Answer 37

amnesia produced by profound alcoholism ; profound and irreversible anterograde amnesia

Question 38

Which vitamin deficiency is in Korsakoff’s Syndrome?

Answer 38

vitamin B1; destruction of mamillary bodies (nucleus in the hypothalamus)

Question 39

H.M.

Answer 39

epileptic who had surgery in 1953; removed both hippocampi; permanent anterograde

Question 40

what did miller learn through study of H.M.?

Answer 40

memories are not stored in the hippocampus, STM is not hippocampus dependent, and hippocampus responsible for converting STM–> LTM

later found to be too simple

Question 41

Explicit

Answer 41

aware of them

Question 42

implicit

Answer 42

not aware

Question 43

What cold HM do well?

Answer 43

broken drawings, conditioned eyeblink response, mirror drawing, tower of hanoi; he retained implicit memory- these do not require a hippocampus

Question 44

What could damage to the entorhinal cortex produce?

Answer 44

similar symptoms of HM because of the pathways to the hippocampus