Learning, Memory and Behaviour

Question 1

What are the two types of memory?

Answer 1

Long term memory and short term memory

Question 2

What are the two types of long term memory?

Answer 2

Explicit/Declarative and Implicit/Non-Declarative

Question 3

What are the two types of explicit memory?

Answer 3

Episodic and Semantic

Question 4

What are the four types of implicit memory?

Answer 4

Procedural
Priming
Classical conditioning
Non-associative learning

Question 5

Where are explicit memories stored?

Answer 5

Diencephalon (thalamus and hypothalamus) and medial temporal lobe

Question 6

Where are procedural memories stored?

Answer 6

Striatum

Question 7

Where are priming memories stored?

Answer 7

Neocortex

Question 8

Where are classical conditioning memories stored?

Answer 8

Amygdala and cerebellum

Question 9

Where are non-associative memories stored?

Answer 9

Reflex pathways

Question 10

What are episodic memories?

Answer 10

Memories of specific episodes in the past
Described as autobiographical
e.g. wedding day

Question 11

What are semantic memories?

Answer 11

Factual knowledge
Derive from episodic memories
e.g. I know that the sky is blue from all my episodic experience of the sky being blue

Question 12

What are procedural memories?

Answer 12

How to use objects
Movements of the body
e.g. how to play the piano

Question 13

What are priming memories?

Answer 13

Exposure to a stimulus influences the response to another stimulus
e.g. seeing the word yellow makes you quicker to recognise the word banana

Question 14

What are the two types of non-associative learning and what do they mean?

Answer 14

Sensitisation - response to a stimulus increases

Habituation - response to a stimulus decreases

Question 15

What is the main feature of non-associative learning?

Answer 15

There is no reinforcement - no reward or punishment for the behaviour

Question 16

Where is the hippocampus located?

Answer 16

Medial temporal lobe

Question 17

Folding of what structure forms the hippocampus?

Answer 17

Infolding of the inferomedial part of the temporal lobe into the lateral ventricle

Question 18

How do the two hippocampi communicate?

Answer 18

Hippocampal commissure

Question 19

What is the purpose of the cortico-hippocampal circuit?

Answer 19

Information flow between the hippocampus and cortex

Question 20

What is the order of information flow in the cortico-hippocampal circuit?

Answer 20

Hippocampus
Entorhinal cortex
Parahippocampal cortices 
Association cortices
1st sensory cortices

Information from the hippocampus and entorhinal cortex can also go directly to the association cortices

Question 21

What are the functions of the parahippocampal cortex?

Answer 21

Site of convergence for cortical input, parahippocampal gyrus sends to the hipopcampus

Also recieves information outgoing from hippocampus

Question 22

What procedure was Henry Molaison given in 1975 and why was it given?

Answer 22

Bilateral medial temporal lobe lobectomy

Given to control severe epilepsy

Question 23

What was the result of the procedure given to Henry Molaison?

Answer 23

Anterograde amnesaia - could not form new memories.

Long term memories still intact, and could still hold a short conversation.

Question 24

What procedure can be used on rodents to test spatial memory?

Answer 24

Morris Water Maze

Question 25

Explain the procedure of the Morris Water Maze experiment?

Answer 25

Relies on rats desire to get out of water/dangerous situation Rat placed in wading pool with hidden platform Learns where platform is over 7 days Platform removed, amount of time spent in correct quadrant of wading pool measured

Question 26

Lesions to the hippocampus impair which type of memory?

Answer 26

Spatial memory

Question 27

What does pharmacological inactivation of the CA1 region of hippocampus do?

Answer 27

Blocks retrieval of spatial memory | Rats spend less time in the correct quadrant

Question 28

Name a drug that can be used to temporarily inactivate a region of the brain

Answer 28

Muscimol - GABAa agonist

Question 29

What are the effects of blocking hippocampal NMDA receptors?

Answer 29

No LTP, blocks formation of spatial memory

Question 30

What are Place cells?

Answer 30

Hippocampal pyramidal cells Fire in complex bursts when an animal moves through a specific location Region in which cell fires most is called the firing-field Different locations encoded by different cells Ensemble of neurons provides cognitive map

Question 31

Give 5 pieces of evidence that support the fact that the hippocampus is involved in spatial memory

Answer 31

1. Lesions to hippocampus reduce time spent in correct quadrant in Water Morris Maze 2. Purfusion of the CA1 area of the hippocampus with Muscimol reduces time spent in correct quadrant 3. Blocking hippocampal NMDA receptors blocks formation of spatial memory 4. Place cells 5. Taxi drivers size of hippocampus correlates with years of experience. Bus drivers do not

Question 32

How can visual recognition memory be tested?

Answer 32

Novel Object Recognition Test

Question 33

What is the procedure of the Novel Object Recognition Test?

Answer 33

A rat is presented with two identical objects and given time to explore them One object is changed The amount of time the rat spends exploring each object is measured Rats normally spend more time exploring the new object

Question 34

How are the results of the novel object recognition test presented?

Answer 34

As a discrimination ratio Nov = time spent exploring novel object Fam = time spent exploring familiar object D = (Nov-Fam)/(Nov+Fam) If D = 0, time spent exploring each object is the same If D>1, time spent exploring novel object is longer Real result was D = 0.48

Question 35

What effect does lesions to the perirhinal cortex have?

Answer 35

Abolished novel object preference

Question 36

Where is the perirhinal cortex located?

Answer 36

Adjacent to the hippocampus, highly connected to

Question 37

How can object preference be used to test spatial memory?

Answer 37

Instead of replacing one object, one object is moved to a new location Lesions to hippocampus disrupt longer exploration time of object in new location