Learning and Memory

Question 1

What are the definitions of Learning and Memory

Answer 1

Learning: Change in Behaviour that results from acquiring knowledge
Memory: Process by which that knowledge is integrated

Question 2

Memory classification

Answer 2

Sensory input leads to Sensory register (Sensory register is remembered for a few seconds) if Attention is paid to the sensory Register it becomes Short-term memory (This lasts seconds to minutes). By Rehearsing and consolidating that S.-T. memory it becomes Long-Term memory which can be remembered the whole life

Question 3

Where are different Short-Term memory informations processed?

Answer 3

Visual Information - Prefrontal cortex
Verbal Information - Posterior parietal cortex

Question 4

What was the Henry Molaisson case ?

Answer 4

Had Medial temporal lobe, hippocampus and amygdala removed -> inability to form new long term memory
Another patient with loss of CA1 pyramidal neurons in Hippocampus had similar defect

Question 5

What are mechanisms of implicit memory?

Answer 5

Habituation: lower response to a harmless stimulus
Sensitization: Higher response to harmfull stimulus
Conditioning: association of one type of stimulus to another

Question 6

What are the Effects of the implicit memory mechanisms?

Answer 6

Habituation: after 10 stimulations the response is lower(Less neurotransmitter)
-> Change is homosynaptic
Sensitization: Heterosynaptic
Conditioning: Heterosynaptic, requires coordination of two stimuli

Question 7

Sensitization

Answer 7

Needs persistant increase of cAMP and activation of PKA which activates CREB1 in the nucleus. CREB1 activation leads to recruitment of polymerase 1 and starts gene transcription. Necessary for production of new connections

Question 8

How does Long-Term-potentiation work?

Answer 8

Activation of NMDA receptors leads to increase in calcium that activates PKC through CaMKII. PKC promotes insertion of new AMPA receptors in the PSD. Retrograde signal travels back to the presynaptic membrane and increases NT release.

Question 9

Explain the two types of long term memory

Answer 9

Explicit: conscious
active memory of facts and situations.
hippocampus, thalamus, hypothalamus
Implicit: unconscious
often with a procedural task involved.
Involves striatum, cerebellum, amygdala