Learning and memory

Question 1

what is learning

Answer 1

learning is response of the brain to environmental events, it involves adaptive changes in synaptic connectivity which will alter behaviour

Question 2

What was Donald Hebb’s hypothesis for how the brain processes and stores info.

Answer 2

1949. when axon of cell A excites cell B and repeatedly takes part in firing it, some growth process or metabolic change takes place in both cells.

Question 3

what was Donald Hebb’s quip

Answer 3

cells that fire together wire together

Question 4

what does the strengthening and weakening of synaptic connections do

Answer 4

promotes learning and a means by which new memories are formed

Question 5

what is LTP

Answer 5

long term potentiation. it is the mechanism underlying synaptic strengthening.

Question 6

what is LTP’s properties

Answer 6

LTP is temporal, input specific and associative

Question 7

what is meant by LTP being temporal

Answer 7

LTP requires a temporal summation that needs to reach a certain threshold to work its effects. this means repetitive stimulation (high-frequency stimulation) HFS is often used to induce LTP.

Question 8

what is meant by LTP being input specific

Answer 8

means it occurs at specific synapses. meaning LTP at one synapse doesn’t spread to adjacent synapses. the strengthening is localised to a specific synapse.

Question 9

what is mean by LTP being associative

Answer 9

means that simultaneous stimulation at both strong and weak pathways can induce LTP at both pathways.

Question 10

what brain structure is thought to be crucial in learning

Answer 10

hippocampus

Question 11

what was the Morris water maze experiment

Answer 11

wanted to see if LTP underlies in working memory. found that the rat was able to learn where the step was every time to get out the pool. also found if you do hippocampal lesion on rats they never learn where platform is. so correlative evidence that LTP and hippocampus is involved