Learning and Memory Flashcards
What is the term for the link between memory and remembering? (as in remembering a memory)
Engrams - While presumed biochemical in nature. How they are formed remains relatively unclear however we currently think engrams are located all over the brain with the amygdala for fearful memories
What is associative learning?
Network of cells which are synaptically linked due to cells firing simultaneously which causes them to increase their synaptic associations
What is habituation and sensitisation?
Habituation - Decrease in response and neurotransmitter release with repeated stimuli,
Sensitisation - Increased response with repeated stimulation.
What are the different memory systems?
When separating them based on duration, there are three types; Short term memory, long term memory and working memory.
What is short term emmory?
Very brief memory (only lasting a few seconds and so must be repeatedly reactivated to become working memory) either from external stimulus or retrieval from a long term memory. It is easily displaced by another stimulus. It can be extended into a working memory by repetition in a phonic loop or chunking.
How can you test the short term memory?
Via digit span. This is when the subject reads an increasing serious of numbers which they immediately repeat.
What is working memory?
The maintenance and integration of information in an active state for a relatively brief time in order to achieve a short term task. Comprised of short and/or retrieved LTM. When task is over the working memory is either encoded into long term memory or lapse.
What is long term memory?
The acquisition and retrieval of information over long periods of time. It is subdivided into declarative and non-declarative memory.
What are teh subdivisions of declarative memory?
Either semantics (language/facts) or episodic (events and experiences) which both feed into autobiographical memory
What are the subdivisions of non-declarative memory?
- Procedural (things like cycling, basal ganglia and cerebellum involved).
- Priming (Either habituation or sensitization)
- Associative learning (classical conditioning (hypothalamus) or emotional responses (amygdala))
What are the 4 parts of leaning and storing memory?
- Encoding (memory creation),
- Storage (persistance of memory traces)
- Retrieval (memory recovery),
- Consolidation (strengthening of memory traces)
Describe the pathway of information that occurs when making a memory
All the information comes from the cortices through the hippocampus, from here they go over the fornix of the brain down into the mammillary bodies. Then go to anterior part of thalamus and back out to the cortex.
Explain memory formation
Series of events are encoded by the hippocampus and a reference is made to their hippocampal index. If this information is recalled prior to consolidation, the hippocampus preforms the retrieval from its index of events. After consolidation the memory retrieval can be initiated directly from the sensory cortices.
What allows for consolidation of declarative memory?
- Physical changes at the synapse, this can be; increase in the number of presynaptic vesicles and post-synaptic receptors. Development of separate synaptic zones. A single synaptic spine may divide into two or new dendritic spines may appear
What structures are involved in consolidating non-declarative memory?
Amygdala, Caudate nucleus, putamen.
(caudate nucleus and putamen thought to influence movement and procedural memories)
Cerebellum influences fine motor movement
