L4 - How the Brain Acquires New Memories Flashcards
What are the 4 common paradigms used to study memory acquisition?
- maze learning in rats
- eye blink response
- hand-eye coordination in monkeys
- spatial navigation in taxi drivers
What does t-PA stand for, and what is it?
tissue-type plasminogen activator
It is a protein which modifies the cell after learning has taken place.
How could we identify specific regions of the cerebellar cortex that are involved in memory formation?
Visualising proteins involved in memory formation could act as molecular markers of the areas of the brain involved.
How can we study memory encoding using brain activity?
The Subsequent memory paradigm/Difference due to memory paradigm:
PPS are shown words whilst their EEG response to each word is recorded. They are later tested for the same, and novel items and asked whether the item is novel or seen.
EEG responses to remembered words and forgotten words were averaged, and compared, revealing the EEG activity associated with forgetting and remembering of an item.
What does the Difference due to memory paradigm enable us to see?
The average EEG activity in response to remembered/forgotten words - allows an insight into memory encoding.
What is pattern separation?
The laying down of distinct information by the hippocampus, to encode a specific episode.
What is pattern completion?
Partial inputs/cues can later activate the full record/all other items in the memory/episode - retrieval.
What is the binding item and context theory (Diana et al., 2007)?
Hippocampus binds together information from the what (ventral) and where (dorsal) pathway.
Describe Staresina and Davachi’s (2009) test of the binding item and context theory.
Items were pictures of boxes with an object inside it.
During the encoding phase, items were presented either:
- combined: coloured object inside the box
- spatially dis-contiguous: the object was black and white, and the colour of the object was represented by the colour of the box.
- spatiotemporally dis-contiguous: the colour of the object was presented as the colour of the box, without an object inside. 0.5s later, the colouring of the box disappeared and the colourless object appeared inside.
During the retrieval phase, participants were tested on whether the item was new or old, what colour it was, and how confident they were in their response.
What were the results of Staresina and Davachi’s (2009) test of the binding item and context theory?
Greater hippocampus activity the greater the difficulty of binding (spatiotemporally discontinguous led to the most hippocampus activity, and combined stimuli led to the least)
What does MTL stand for?
Medial temporal lobe
What does the MTL consist of?
Hippocampal formation, as well as the perirhinal, parahippocampal and entorhinal cortices.
What does neuroimaging evidence conclude about the role of the MTL in encoding?
- The hippocampus shows subsequent memory effects, more strongly for associative encoding (object/colour binding).
- Perirhinal cortex shows subsequent memory effects for item or object information independent of contextual binding.
What is the left PFC especially implicated in the encoding of?
Verbal material. Also important for visual material.
What is the fusiform gyrus important for, in encoding?
Specific role is unclear, but thought to be crucial for recognition.
What did Otten et al., (2001) test about the role of the PFC in encoding?
Measured brain activity in response to encoding words in a shallow (syllables) or deep (animacy; whether the word presented was an animal or not) task.
