LC 1 - animal models and cognition

Question 1

processes in memory

Answer 1

o Registering/encoding of information (acquisition)
o Storage of information (consolidation)
o Retrieval of information (retention)

Question 1

short term / working memory

Answer 1

• 15sec – temporal recall of present information
• Using attention to manage short term memory  working memory
  o The entire theoretical framework of structures and processes of temporal storage and manipulation of information
• Hippocampus and cortex
• 7 digits is roughly the number of digits can be stored in the working memory

Question 2

procedural/implicit memory

Answer 2

type of Long-term memory
- Priming/Perceptual “training”
o Cortex
- Non-associative Learning (Habituation/Sensitization)
o Habituation: the strength or probability of a response diminishes when the response is repeated
o Sensitization: Drug sensitization occurs in drug addiction, and is defined as an increased effect of drug following repeated doses (the opposite of habituation)
o Reflex pathways (spinal cord)

• Simple Classical/Pavlovian Conditioning
  o Cerebellum
  o Amygdala
• Skills/Habits (Strategies/Procedures/Motor Learning)
  o Striatum
  o Cerebellum
  o Motor cortex

Question 3

declarative memory

Answer 3

type of long-term memory
- Semantic memory: Non-contextual memory (‘cold’ facts) - pieces of knowledge about the world around us (of note, this is spatiotemporal context for event/stimulus)
- Episodic memory: Contextual memory (personal knowledge) - specific event or stimulus related to its spatiotemporal context
- Hippocampus
o STM
o Procedural memory
o Retrieval of declarative memory
o Consolidation of declarative information
- Temporal/parietal lobe

Question 4

validity of animal models

Answer 4

• Validity of animal models:
  o Construct validity = the measures in the model/test reflects theoretical assumptions

o Face validity = degree of similarity between measures in the model/test and in humans

o Predictive validity = the effects of drugs or lesions in the model/test predict the effect of those drugs or lesions in humans

Question 5

spatial memory (model)

Answer 5

• Spatial memory: dorsal hippocampus
• Morris water maze test, object-location time test and spatial Y-maze are used to test spatial memory in mice (often used in AD models)

Question 6

object memory (model)

Answer 6

• You can also change the object instead of the location (in the object-location task):
  o Brain regions in object memory: The dorsal hippocampus and the entorhinal cortex are important role in recognition memory that rely primarily on a rodent’s innate exploratory behaviour

Question 7

working memory (model)

Answer 7

• Working memory encompasses a long range synchrony between medial prefrontal cortex, thalamus and hippocampus underlies working memory behaviour in mice
• Tested using Y-maze –> mouse is supposed to make triads of choices if it remembers where it has been it will go to a place it hasnt been before (A –> B –> C = correct triad)