Lecture 14: Learning, Memory & Synaptic Plasticity Flashcards
What are the two subtypes of memory?
Declarative memory and Non-declarative memory.
Which type of memory is hippocampus dependent and why?
Declarative memory, because the memories are formed in the hippocampus.
Where are declarative memories stored?
In the cortex.
The middle part of which lobe was removed in patient H.M. and what major structure did this contain?
The middle part of the temporal lobe was removed, containing the hippocampus.
Do types of memory exist that do not depend on the temporal lobe?
Yes.
Does a lesion to the hippocampus impair working memory or short term memory? Give an example that highlights this.
Working memory. Rats with a lesion of the hippocampus can learn which arms of a maze have food in them and therefore avoid those which do not, but they will still revisit arms they have just taken food from as they cannot remember which arm they’ve just been down. This shows functioning short term memory but not functioning working memory.
Does place cell or grid cell activation rely more on visual cues?
Place cells rely more (but not wholly) on visual cues.
What two subtypes make up declarative memory?
Episodic (remembering events)
Semantic (remembering facts)
What three subtypes make up non-declarative memory?
Skill learning (eg riding a bike), priming (being more likely to use a word you heard recently), and conditioning (Pavlov).
Which brain area is conditioning associated with?
Cerebellum.
Where are grid cells located?
In the entorhinal cortex.
Where are place cells located?
Hippocampus.
Is synaptic plasticity important in learning and memory?
Yes!
What are the five experimental strategies used to assess the relationship between synaptic plasticity and learning and memory?
Correlation - is long term potentiation correlated with learning and memory? (Yes)
Induction - learning should be associated with measurable changes in synaptic plasticity.
Occlusion - does saturation of LTP or LTD stop learning? (Yes)
Intervention - blocking or enhancing synaptic plasticity should have proportional effects in learning. It does.
Erasure - erasure of synaptic plasticity should induce forgetting shortly after learning.
How do NMDA receptors bring about long term potentiation (LTP)?
- when NMDA receptors are highly active they are more permeable to calcium.
- this calcium influx causes AMPA receptor phosphorylation and more AMPA receptors to be inserted into the membrane
- hence LTP
