learning and memory (3.6)

Question 1

learning vs memory

Answer 1

learning: the acquisition of new information or knowledge
memory: the retention of learned information

Question 2

long-term vs short-term memories

Answer 2

long-term: those that can be recalled days, months, and years after they were stored
short-term: those that last on the order of seconds to hours

Question 3

consolidation

Answer 3

short-term memories are selectively converted into a permanent form (long-term)

Question 4

explicit vs procedural/implicit memory

Answer 4

explicit: declarative; memory for facts and personal events that can be consciously recalled (semantic or episodic)
implicit: non-declarative; long-term memory for habits and skills that cannot be consciously recalled

Question 5

retrograde vs anterograde amnesia

Answer 5

retrograde: memory loss for events before the trauma
anterograde: an inability to form new memories after the trauma

Question 6

anterior pole vs caudal medial temporal lobe

Answer 6

anterior pole: in the temporal lobe; the “hub” for semantic memory or converging information
caudal medial temporal lobe: episodic memory

Question 7

semantic vs episodic memory

Answer 7

semantic: general world knowledge that we have accumulated throughout our lives
episodic: explicit long-term memories for the particular events of one’s life

Question 8

semantic memory activation (thinking about shape, sound, touch, smell, everything)

Answer 8

shape: inferotemporal lobe
sound: primary auditory cortex
touch: primary somatosensory cortex
smell: piriform cortex, amygdala
everything: anterior pole

Question 9

Papez circuit (8)

Answer 9

hippocampus -> fornix -> mammillary bodies ->mammillothalamic tract -> anterior thalamic nuclei -> cingulate cortex -> entorhinal cortex -> hippocampus

Question 10

how to do things vs pattern recognition

Answer 10

how to do things: cerebellum
pattern recognition: basal ganglia

Question 11

where short-term memory is stored

Answer 11

telencephalon

Question 12

spatial memory vs object identifiers

Answer 12

spatial memory: dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dorsal stream)
object identifiers: ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (ventral stream)

Question 13

Alzheimer’s disease

Answer 13

a progressive, degenerative and ultimately fatal brain disease, in which the ability to think and to remember is gradually lost; the most common form of dementia; generally diagnosed in patients over the age of 65

Question 14

contributing factor to memory loss in AD

Answer 14

depletion of acetylcholine in the brain due to the degeneration of the basal forebrain (treated with acetylcholine agonists)

Question 15

Hebb

Answer 15

proposed that the internal representation of an object consists of all of the cortical cells activated by the external stimulus (cell assembly)

Question 16

long-term potentiation (3)

Answer 16

induction (learning): NMDA glutamate receptors respond when glutamate binds or the postsynaptic neuron is already partially depolarized; Ca+2 entry triggers events that lead to LTP (says to make connections stronger)
maintenance (memory): involves structural changes (which depend on protein synthesis) including increase in number/type of synapses, increase in number/size of spines, changes in dendritic branching
expression (recall): sodium helps with firing APs while calcium makes the cell release nitric oxide (presynaptic cell says glutamate was released and calcium is in)
(maintenance and expression combined in lecture)

Question 17

concussion

Answer 17

causes permanent retrograde amnesia for events that led up to the blow and permanent anterograde amnesia for events during the subsequent period of confusion; length of retrograde amnesia depends on injury severity

Question 18

electroconvulsive shock testing (ECT)

Answer 18

an outdated treatment for epilepsy; suggests that memory consolidation occurs over a period of years; new treatment for depression; too much current may cause memory loss