LECTURE 4: Amnesia

Question 1

What are the two historical approaches to memory?

Answer 1

behavioural and cognitivist

Question 2

explain the behaviourist approach to memory

Answer 2

memory can be understood through the simple interaction between 2 stimuli (stimulus-stimulus or stimulus-response)

Question 3

who are the 2 scientists who had the behaviourist approach?

Answer 3

watson and skinner

Question 4

explain the cognitivist approach to memory

Answer 4

learning is not just as simple as s-r and there is a process of thinking behind it instead

use of ideation and prior knowledge

Question 5

who are the 2 scientists who had the cognivitst approach?

Answer 5

tolman and bartlett

Question 6

explain tolmann’s maze experiment

Answer 6

there was a maze with 3 different pathways to get to food at the end, and rats naturally will pick the shortest pathway to get to the food.

1. no blocks and rats go path 1 (shortest)
2. block path 1(short path) and the rats end up going path 2 (2nd shortest)
3. block path 1 and 2 and rats go path 3(longest)

Question 7

explain the significance and finding between tolmann’s maze

Answer 7

the rats response to the blockade showed that memory is more complex than just s-r. if it was just s-r, then there would be a 50-50 chance for the direction the rats went, but they always went the shortest path

there has to be learning and thinking involved to make this decision

Question 8

what is latent learning?
link this to tolmann

Answer 8

observational learning that occurs where the learner is not actively participating in an obvious lesson

ex. in tolmanns maze, they let the rats wander around first and let them just see the layout, and then when tested it was shown that they actually learned about the paths and which was best to get food

Question 9

define amnesia

Answer 9

a - without
nmeme- memory

loss, absense, or dysfunction of memory in the absense of other cognitive symptoms

Question 10

list three ways amnesia can be induced

Answer 10

1. organic / damage induced
2. substance induced
3. functional

Question 11

explain organic/damage induced amnesia

Answer 11

memory impaired by damage

memory was fine before, but after damage there is now amnesia

Question 12

list the scientists that studied organic damage induced amnesia

Answer 12

ribot, korsakoff, alzheimer, scoville/milner

Question 13

what did ribot study?

Answer 13

amnesia due to brain trauma, patients forget events that occur around the time of injury, but not those that occurred WAY before

timing of memory loss

Question 14

what did korsakoff study?

Answer 14

alcholism causing dysfunction in the diencephalon causing amnesia

Question 15

what did alzheimer study?

Answer 15

corticol thinning and full condition is started with some kind of amnesia

Question 16

who did scoville and milner study?

Answer 16

H.M - henry molaison

Question 17

explain substance induced amnesia and list one example for the substance

Answer 17

caused by some chemicals or drugs

ex. fluntirzepam (rohypnol)

Question 18

explain functional amnesia

Answer 18

all psychological, usually from PTSD

Question 19

why did HM need surgery?

Answer 19

hm was a severe epileptic for years and it was so bad that he went to scoville for help

Question 20

what did scoville remove during H.M’s surgery?

Answer 20

removed MTL, hippocampus, amydgala

Question 21

did HMs surgery work?

Answer 21

yes, it stopped his seizures and even improved his IQ

Question 22

what was the problem found after HM surgery

Answer 22

he had amnesia but no other nuerological effects

Question 23

what types of amnesia did HM show?

Answer 23

temporally graded retorgrade amnesia and anterograde amnesia

Question 24

define temporally graded retrograde amnesia

Answer 24

similar to what ribot found, memory WAY before the injury was intact, but memories near the injury were lost

timeline

Question 25

define anterograde amnesia

Answer 25

cannot form any new memories - HM didnt have FULL version of this

Question 26

what task was HM not able to do and how was this tested?

Answer 26

free recall

brenda gave him a list of words and he could not remember what they were if >15 mins went by, or if there was some distraction in between

Question 27

what tasks was HM able to do and how were they tested? (tasks)

Answer 27

1. short term recall: same list, but could remember if it was <15 mins and no distractions
2. priming: word stem completion or partial pics
3. skill learning - mirror drawing improved with no memory of the previous attempts
4. habits: repetive motor sequence learning - tying shoes
5. classical conditioning: eyeblink with puff of air gets associated to the tone

Question 28

what were the findings with HMs case in summary?
(2)

Answer 28

1. surgery was effective in removing seizures
2. no perceptual, motor or cognitive defects - only his memory

Question 29

what type of memory is intact in amnesia?

Answer 29

procedural (unconscious, implicit)

Question 30

what type of memory is impaired with amnesia?

Answer 30

declarative (conscious)

Question 31

what does retrograde amnesia imply about the MTL?

Answer 31

that it is involved in the process of declarative memory, but after the memory gets moved elsewhere to other brain regions

hence why very old memories are intact as they are no longer in the MTL

Question 32

list the 3 other patients who had similar MTL amnesia to HM

Answer 32

1. E.P
2. Jimmie G
3. R.B

Question 33

what was patient EPs issue?

Answer 33

viral encephalopathy - similar lesion to HM causing similar deficits and sparing

Question 34

what was jimmie g’s issue?

Answer 34

korsakoffs syndrome causing damage to the limbic structures - similar to HM - intact procedural

Question 35

what was RBs issue?

Answer 35

global ischemia from heart transplant causing CA1 damage
-keep episodic not semantic

Question 36

what are the two major subdivisions of memory?

Answer 36

1. declarative (conscious, explicit) - MTL and dicephalon
2. procedural (unconcious, implicit)

Question 37

what are the two subdivisions of declarative memory?

Answer 37

1. semantic (facts)
2. episodic (events)

Question 38

what are the 3 subdivisions of procedural memory?

Answer 38

1. skills and habits (striatum)
2. classical conditioning (amygdala&cerebellum)
3. priming (neocortex)