Lecture 17 (memory) Flashcards
Amnesia?
server impairment of memory, usually as a result of accident or disease.
Retrograde amnesia?
loss of memories that formed prior to an event. It is unlikely that long-term retrograde amnesia has ever occurred.
Anterograde amnesia?
the inability to form new memories after an event.
When will anterograde amnesia happen?
Loss of the medial temporal lobe, including the hippocampus.
Korsakoff’s syndrome (happens after long alcohol problems - lack of vitamin B)?
have anterograde amnesia. They often deny that anything is wrong with them, and they often fill a gap in memory with a falsification that they seem to accept as true. They have shrunken, diseased mammillary bodies.
Mental time travel?
People with severe head traumas can’t use this.
It is about having an imagination and how detailed it can be.
Which structures are involved in the “limbic” memory system?
o Cingulate gyrus
o Anterior nucleus (a part of thalamus)
o Fornix
o Cingulum
o Amygdala
o Hippocampus
o Subiculum
o Mammillary body
What was HM’s disease?
Epilepsy.
Which part of HM’s brain did they take?
They took away most of his hippocampus and amygdala.
* Anteriore medial temporal lobes bilaterally.
What kind of memory did HM lose?
Got severe anterograde declarative amnesia.
Which kinds of memory did HM keep?
his working memory, procedural memory and spatial learning
Semantic dementia?
loss of knowledge about concepts. Seen in people with frontotemporal dementia.
Amnestic syndrome?
huge loss of episodic memory, especially anterograde.
