Learning Memory & Amnesia Flashcards
What procedure did H.M. undergo?
Bilateral Medial Temporal Lobectomy
What were the consequences of H.M.’s procedure
Mild retrograde amnesia, severe anterograde amnesia
What are implicit memories?
Unconscious memories
What are explicit memories?
Conscious memories
Who is Clive Wearing, and what memory deficits does he demonstrate?
- British musicologist who has virtually no memory
- suffers from chronic anterograde and retrograde amnesia
What did R.B.’s case teach us about the Hippocampus?
Hippocampal damage alone can produce amnesia
What is Korsakoff’s Syndrome?
- Most commonly seen in severe alcoholics or others with a thiamine defieciency
- Damage in the medial diencephalon, medial thalamus, and/or mammillary bodies.
What are the symptoms of Korsakoff’s Syndrome?
- Amnesia, confusion, personality changes, physical problems
- progresses over time
What is posttraumatic amneisa?
Concussions may cause retrograde amnesia for the period before the blow and some anterograde amnesia after
What is reconsolidation?
The transferring of a memory from short-term memory to long-term memory
What is the primary brain region involved in object-recognition?
Rhinal Cortex
What is the primary brain region involved in spatial location?
Hippocampus
What are place cells?
Cells that respond when a subject is in a particular place
Where are place cells located in the brain?
Hippocampus
What forms of memory storage are associated with the cerebellum?
Memories of sensorimotor skills
What forms of memories are stored in the striatum?
Habit formation
What effect does long term potentiation have on the postsynaptic cell?
Synapses are effectively made stronger by repeated stimulation
What is long term potentiation?
- LTP only occurs if presynaptic firing is followed by postsynaptic firing
- Co-occurrence of firings in pre and postsynaptic neurons necessary for learning and memory
What is an AMPA receptor?
Ligand-gated Na+ channel involved in LTP
What is an NMDA receptor?
Ligand and voltage gated Na+ channel, also is a Ca2+ channel, involved in LTP
What are semantic webs?
- Demonstrate that memory is associative
- allow us to remember the “gist” of things more so than details
- influence decision making
What is the influence of associativity on decision making?
Previously made associations will greatly affect a person’s decision making
