Memory Flashcards
Define learning
Acquisition of new knowledge or skills
Define memory
Retention of learned information
Define declarative memory
Memory for facts and events
Define episodic memory
Autobiographical life experiences
Define semantic memory
Facts
Define nondeclarative memories
Memory for skills, habits, emotional responses, and some reflexes
Define procedural memory
Memory for skills and behaviour
What two categories does the formation of procedural memory occur?
- Nonassociative learning
- Associative learning
Define nonassociative learning
A change in behavioural response that occurs over time in response to a single type of stimuli
What are the two types of nonassociative learning?
- Habituation
- Sensitisation
Define habituation
Learning to ignore a stimulus that lacks meaning
Define sensitisation
A form of learning that intensifies your response to all stimuli, even one’s that previously evoked little or no reaction
Define associative learning
Behaviour altered by the formation Of associations between events
What are the two types of associative learning?
- Classical learning
- Instrumental learning
Define classical conditioning
Involves associating a stimulus that evokes a measurable response with a second stimulus that does not evoke a response
Define instrumental conditioning
An individual learns to associate a response, a motor act, with a meaningful stimulus, typically a reward such as food
What are long term memories
Those you can recall days, months, or years after they were originally stored,
What are short term memories?
Retention of information about recent events or facts that is not yet consolidated into long term memory
Define memory consolidation
The process by which short term memories lasting hours to days are converted into long term memories lasting weeks to years
Define working memories
Information storage that is temporary, limited in capacity and requires continual rehearsal
Define amnesia
A severe loss of memory or the ability to learn
What are dissociated amnesia
Amnesia not accompanied by an other cognitive deficit
What are the two types of memory loss?
- Retrograde amnesia
- Anterograde amnesia
Define retrograde amnesia
Events for a period of time prior to the trauma are forgotten but the memories from the distant past and the period following the trauma are intact
Loss of declarative information learned prior
What is anterograde amnesia?
Events prior to the trauma can be remembered but there are no memories for the period following the trauma
Inability to form new memories
What is transient global amnesia?
Sudden onset of anterograde amnesia that lasts for only a period of minutes to days, often accompanied by retrograde amnesia for recent events preceding the attack
What brain region is involved in retaining information in working memory?
Prefrontal cortex
What neuron temporarily holds information
LIP
Define engram or memory trace
The physical representation or location of a memory
What was Lashleys contribution to memory storage?
That all of the cortex participates in memory storage, and that an engram can be widely distributed in the brain
What did Hebb propose?
The internal representation of an object consists of all three cortical cells that are activated by the external stimulus.
Define cell assembly
A group of simultaneously active neurons that represent an object held in memory
What did Hebb discover about engram?
- It could be widely distributed among the connections that link the cells of the assembly
- It could involve the same neurons that are involved in sensation and perception
What brain site stores long term memory?
Temporal neocortex
Medial temporal lobe is essential for the formation of declarative memories
How does sensory information flow through the medial temporal lobe?
Sensory information
Cortical association areas
PARAHIPPOCAMPAL and rhinos cortical areas
Hippocampus - feed back look to the cortical association areas
FORNIX
Thalamus, hypothalamus
What is a major output pathway from the hippocampus?
FORNIX
What role do selective neurons play in the hippocampus regarding memory?
Serve a role in the formation of new memories of people and things we already recognise
What happens when the medial temporal lobe is damaged?
Severe anterograde amnesia
What is delayed non-match to sample?
A behavioural task in which animals are trained to displace one of two alternative objects that does not match a previously seen sample object
Define recognition memory
Ability to judge whether a stimulus has been seen before
What causes the most severe memory deficits?
Damage to the perirhinal cortex - not specific to information from a particularly sensory modality
What role does the hippocampus play in memories?
- In binding sensory information for the purpose of memory consolidation
- Supports spatial memory of the location of objects of behavioural importance
- Storage of memories for some length
Define place cells
A neuron in the rat hippocampus that responds only when the animal is in a certain region of space
What role does the caudate play in memory?
Reflects movement planning
What are grid cells
Respond when an Nima is at multiple locations that form a hexagonal grid
Located in entorhinal cortex
How does grid cells and place cells interact?
Place fields in the hippocampus may result from summation of inputs from grid cells
What is the cognitive map theory?
States that the hippocampus is specialised for creating a spatial map of the environment
What is the standard model of memory consolidation?
Information comes through neocortex areas associated with sensory systems and is then sent to the medial temporal lobe for processing.
What is synaptic consolidation?
The transformation of sensory information into a temporary memory trace in the hippocampusn
What is systems consolidation
Occurs in which engrams are moved gradually over time into distributed areas of the neocortex,
What is multiple trace model of consolidation?
An alternative to the standard model of memory consolidation in which the hippocampus participates indefinitely in memory storage along with the neocortex; in this model, each time an episodic memory is recalled in a new context, an additional memory is formed
Define reconsolidation
The process of retrieving, modifying and storing a memory that was previously consolidated
What happens to memory when a lesion is present on the FORNIX or striatum?
FORNIX - degraded performance in standard maze task but light task unaffected
Striatum - impaired light task, no affect on standard task
What brain site is linked to habit learning
Striatum
