L10 - Spatial Cognition

Question 1

What type of learning is the cortex specialised for?

Answer 1

‘Unsupervised’ relational learning

Question 2

What is unsupervised learning?

Answer 2

Learning which is driven without specific teaching signals, reward, or error.

Question 3

Which two systems/areas of the brain does spatial cognition involve?

Answer 3

• Hippocampus

- Posterior parietal cortex

Question 4

What is anterograde amnesia?

Answer 4

Inability to form new memories.

Question 5

Describe the surgery performed on patient HM and what his main inability was afterwards.

Answer 5

Had his hippocampus removed on both sides. Lead to an inability to form new memories (anterograde amnesia) and inability to convert short term memory into long term memory.

Question 6

What 4 things did the case of patient HM teach us about the role/capacities of the hippocampus?

Answer 6

The hippocampus:

• is not the location for long term memories, nor required for long term memory retrieval.
• is not the location for immediate short term memories (HM could hold a conversation)
• is involved in converting immediate/short term memories into long term memories
• may be involved in spatial memory (HM struggled finding his way around/back home)

Question 7

How does the hippocampus allow for such vast learning of memories?

Answer 7

Neurogenesis - process by which new neurons and produced from neural stem cells.

Question 8

Which study demonstrated relational spatial learning in rats and how did it do so?

Answer 8

Morris’ water maze. Rats had to find a platform in a body of opaque water using location cues. If they had intact hippocampi, they would be able to quickly navigate to the platform each day.

Question 9

What type of learning did Morris’ water maze demonstrate, and how was it demonstrated?

Answer 9

Relational spatial learning. Rats had to find a platform in a body of opaque water using location cues. If they had intact hippocampi, they would be able to quickly navigate to the platform each day.

Question 10

What are place cells and how do they aid memory consolidation?

Answer 10

Place cells seem to be individual cells that each represent a section of space. A study on rats in a triangular maze found that each place cell fires for each sequential section that the rat ran through. When the rat stopped, the cells fired in reverse order. THis is thought to replay the sequence/space in the rat’s head to enable consolidation of where it had been.

Question 11

What are the precursors to place cells?

Answer 11

Grid cells in the entorhinal cortex

Question 12

What do grid cells do?

Answer 12

Grid cells of different spatial scale combine to activate place cells for unique locations.