lecture 2 - LTM 2

Question 1

Synaptic consolidation

Answer 1

Structural changes in synaptic connections - quick (few hours)

Question 2

Systemic consolidation

Answer 2

Gradual independence from hippocampus - slower (days/months - long term)
More direct connections formed over time

Question 3

Evidence for consolidation

Answer 3

Retrograde amnesia is temporally graded - more recent mems worse bc need hipp to lay down initial mem

Question 4

Schott et al (2006): suggests distinct processes and brain regions for priming vs remembering in healthy pps

Answer 4

MTL and PFC activated for remembered words but not for primed words

Question 5

amnesics with MTL damage showed intact ______ priming but impaired _______ memory for same stimuli

Answer 5

semantic/conceptual

declarative

Question 6

Levy et al (2004): studied word pairs
1) free association to cues (i.e. priming)
2) cued recall
3) recognition
how did MTL pps do?

Answer 6

In priming condition, MTL damage pps performed well and slightly better than controls
In 2 & 3 they performed poorly compared to controls

Question 7

But a porous distinction - explicit-implicit boundary

evidence:

Answer 7

1) declarative memory can contribute to implicit tasks e.g. word stem completion and lexical decision contribute to reading
2) hippocampus involved in non-conscious encoding and retrieval relations: although unaware of stimuli, activity in hippocampus was changed (non-conscious retrieval of previously formed associations - activity in hippocampus was enhanced when faces shown in experimental condition

Question 8

Cavaro et al (2005): tasks based on real-world activities (procedural)

Answer 8

despite impaired declarative memory for tasks, amnesics demonstrated acquisition and retention of the 5 skills - learning slopes over repeated trials similar to controls

Question 9

Race et al (2011): constructed narratives about 1) future events, 2) past events and 3) visually presented pictures

Answer 9

amnesics impaired at past and future events but unimpaired with pictures
future thinking positively correlated with episodic memory performance but did not correlate with picture narrative performance
future thinking impairments were present when MTL lesions were restricted to hippocampus and did NOT depend on damage outside of MTL

Question 10

reconsolidation-associated amnesia

Answer 10

can be achieved 48 hours after memory formation as long as relearning occurred soon after retrieval (relearning can destabilise a declarative memory)

Question 11

reconsolidated window =

Answer 11

1-6 hours

relearning only impairs original memory only when it happens in this window

Question 12

relearning without reactivation of original memory

Answer 12

= no impairments

retrieval relearning procedure disrupts reconsolidation process