Learning And Memory Flashcards
What is the definition of learning?
→ Acquisition of new information
What is the definition of memory?
→ Retention of learned information
What is declarative memory and what part of the brain is responsible for it?
→ Facts and events
→ Hippocampus
What is non declarative memory and what part of the brain is responsible for it?
→ Procedural memory (motor skills, habits)
→ Striatum
What 2 things come under classical conditioning?
→ Skeletal musculature (cerebellum)
→ Emotional responses (amygdala)
What is working memory?
→ Temporary storage that lasts seconds
What is short-term memory?
→ Facts and events are stored in short-term memory
→ Subset are converted to long-term memories
What is long-term memory?
→ Recalled months or years later
Where can sensory information go?
→ Long or short-term memory
What are the functions of the pre frontal cortex?
→ Self awareness
→ Capacity for planning and problem solving
Describe the delayed response task
→ place food in one of two wells
→ put a screen between the monkey and the wells
→ after a delay the screen is lifted
→ the monkey has to remember where the food is
What is associated with the visual cortex?
→ Lateral intraparietal cortex
What is an engram?
→ a collection of neurons that are responsible for the storage of a memory
What is the substrate where a memory is going to be stored?
→ A group of neurons that have reciprocal connections
Describe how an engram is formed
→ An external stimulus is presented
→ Activation of the cell assembly occurs
→ The combined activity creates a network that continues activation even after the stimulus has been removed
→This results in strengthening of certain connections between certain neurons
→ The strengthened connections of cell assembly contain the engram for the stimulus
→ even after learning partial stimuli lead to a whole representation of the stimulus
What is a Hebbian modification?
→ Strengthens the reciprocal connections between neurons that are activate at the same time
Where is the hippocampus located?
→ In the medial lobes
What kind of information comes to the hippocampus?
→ Sensory information
What does the hippocampus do with the information it receives?
→ Sensory information comes in
→ It is sent to the cortical association areas
What kind of tissues are capable of forming engrams?
→ Any neuronal tissue
What is the output pathway of the hippocampus?
→ the fornix
Where does the fornix output to?
→ The thalamus and the hypothalamus
What does the thalamus act as?
→ The post office sorting room for the brain
What does the hippocampus feed back to and why is this important?
→ Feeds back to the cortical areas
→ Important for consolidation
