Memory Flashcards
What makes up the allocortex?
Archicortex and paleocortex
What percentage of the human cerebral cortex does the allocortex make up?
10%
After dissection, what else can be viewed in the allocortex?
Hippocampal formation (hippocampus, dentate gyrus, subiculum)
The hippocampus connects with what?
Septal nuclei, mamillary body, and contralateral hippocampus via fornix
What 3 layers make up the hippocampus?
1, 5, and 6
What projects to the hippocampus (Ammon’s horn)?
Dentate gyrus
What 3 layers make up the dentate gyrus?
1, 4, and 6
What merges with the entorhial area?
Subiculum
The hippocampal formation receives 1° imput from the entorhinal cortex of the parahippocampal gyrus through what?
Perforant and alveolar pathway
What does the hippocampal formation play an important role in?
Declarative memory
T/F Episodic is factual information
False; episodic is daily episodes of life; semantic is factual information
Parahippocampal regions have bidirectional connections with what?
Cerebral cortex
The hippocampus has bidirectional connections with what?
Parahippocampal regions
What do the connections between the hippocampus and paracampal regions allow for?
Promotes more flexible associations among items; differentiating overlapping patterns; encoding of each unique episode
What are hippocampal “place” cells?
Presumably the principal cells in each of the layers that fire in complex bursts when an animal moves through a specific location in an environment
Memory functions can be localized to specific regions of the brain such as?
Hippocampus and hippocampal gyrus
Memories are caused by changes in what?
Sensitivity of synaptic transmission between neurons as a result of previous mental activity
What do the changes in sensitivity cause?
They cause new pathways or facilitated pathways to develop “memory traces”
Memory traces can occur at all levels of the nervous system from ____ to ____
Spinal cord to cortex
Most memory we associate with intellectual processes is based on what?
Memory traces in cerebral cortex
Positive memory is associated with what?
Facilitation
Negative memory is associated with _____
Habituation (suppression)
Short term memory lasts how long?
Seconds to minutes
_____ memory lasts years to entire life
Long term
What type of memory lasts days to weeks?
Intermediate long term memory
What is the NMDA receptor associated with?
Synaptic learning/memory
What does the NMDA receptor bind?
Glutamate
What type of ionic channels are associated with the NMDA receptors?
Ligand and voltage gated
T/F Memory has stages and is continually changing
True
Long term memory has what kind of changes?
Plastic changes
Physical changes coding memory are localized in what?
Multiple regions of the brain
____ and ____ memory involve different neuronal circuits
Reflexive and declarative
Memories are caused by groups of neurons that fire together in what?
Fire together in the same pattern each time they are activated
What are characteristics of conscious memory?
Memory of details of an integrated thought; memories of surroundings, time relationships, cause and meaning of the experience; acquiring knowledge of people, places, and things; involves hippocampal gyrus
What is the hippocampal gyrus used for?
Evaluation, comparison, inference
What is the name of a rare phenomenon where a person has total recall of all events experienced since age 10-14 to the present?
Hyperthymestic syndrome
Those with hyperthymestic syndrome have a large ____
Caudate nucleus
Unconscious memory is associated with what?
Motor activity
With unconscious memory, we acquire ___ or ___ skills that are unavailable to consciousness
Motor or perceptual
Certain forms of unconscious memory involve what parts of the brain?
Amygdala and cerebellum
Declarativr memory can be subdivided into what 2 categories?
Episodic and semantic
Declarative memory involves the funcgion of what?
Hippocampus and parahippocampal areas
T/F The cortical areas are thought to process newly learned information
False; the hippocampus processes newly learned information (and then transfers it to cortical areas)
How long may the hippocampus store long term memory?
Weeks
The hippocampus gradually transfers memory to specific regions of ____
The cerebral cortex
How many major synaptic pathways does the hippocampus have?
3
Each major synaptic pathway of the hippocampus is capable of long-term potentiation which is thought to play a role in what?
The storage process
Bilateral removal of what produces profound deficits in memory function?
Hippocampus
T/F Short term memory is lost with removal of the hippocampus
False; short term memory is in tact; the capacity to form new long term memory is lost
With removal of the hippocampus, there is a loss in ability to transfer most types of learning from ___ to ___ memory
Short term to long term (exception is reflexive learning, i.e. motor skills)
T/F if the hippocampus is removed, there is a loss of orientation in space and time
True
Memory capabilities that are spared follwing bilateral lesions of the temporal lobe typically involve learned tasks with what in common?
Tasks tend to be reflexive not reflective and invilve habits, motor, or perceptual skills
They do not require conscious awareness or complex cognitive processes (e.g. comparison and evaluation)
