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6. Neurology (Med) > Memory and Cognition > Flashcards

Memory and Cognition Flashcards

1
Q

What is cognition?

A

Relates to the highest order of brain function and the behaviour that deals with thought processing

Extremely complex

Describes the integration of all sensory information to make sense of a situation

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2
Q

What does making sense of a situation require?

A

Ability to remember evens and learn from them

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3
Q

What does learning and remembering require?

A

Motivation

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4
Q

What is neuronal plasticity?

A

Ability of central neurons to adapt their neuronal connections in response to learning experiences

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5
Q

What is most of the cerebrum made up of?

A

Association areas which integrate information from multiple sources rather than being concerned with one specific function

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6
Q

What lobe is are the visual association areas and visual cortex found in?

A

Occipital lobe

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7
Q

What lobe is the primary somatic sensory cortex and sensory association area found in?

A

Parietal lobe

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8
Q

What lobe is the primary motor cortex and motor association area (premotor cortex) found in?

A

Frontal lobe

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9
Q

What lobe is the auditory association area and auditory cortex found in?

A

Temporal lobe

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10
Q

What are the 3 key components of learning and memory?

A

Formation of memories (hippocampus)

Storage of memories (cortex)

Searching and accessing memories (thalamus)

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11
Q

What is the hippocampus responsible for in terms of memories?

A

Formation of memories

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12
Q

What is the cortex responsible for in terms of memories?

A

Storage of memories

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13
Q

What is the thalamus responsible for in terms of memories?

A

Searching and accessing memories

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14
Q

In what system are memories formed?

A

Limbic system

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15
Q

What does the limbic system represent?

A

‘Old’ cortex but has important connections with the ‘neo’ cortex, in particular the temporal and frontal lobes which allow us to make sense of situations through learning

Gives events emotional significance which is essential for memory

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16
Q

What is the most primitive part of the cortex?

A

Limbic system

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17
Q

What are the 4 distinct areas of the limbic system?

A

Hypothalamus

Hippocampus

Cingulate gyrus

Amygdala

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18
Q

What is the hypothalamus associated with?

A

ANS response

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19
Q

What is the hippocampus associated with?

A

Memory

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20
Q

What is the cingulate gyrus associated with?

A

Emotion

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21
Q

What is the amygdala associated with?

A

Emotion

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22
Q

Collectively, what are the 4 distinct areas of the limbic system responsible for?

A

Instinctive behaviours such as thirst, sex, hunger and emotive behaviour which is driven by seeking reward or avoiding punishment

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23
Q

What does electrical stimulation of certain areas of the limbic system in conscious patients cause?

A

Intense feelings of well being

Euphoria

Sexual arousal

this means these areas are reward areas

Other nearby areas elicit fear/terror, anger or pain so are punishment areas

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24
Q

What forms the “affective components” of the sensory experience?

A

Reward and punishment areas, which are central aspects to learning

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25
Q

What does motivation to learn come from?

A

Gaining a reward or avoiding a punishment, which gives tasks significance

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26
Q

What happens to experiences that are neither rewarding or punishing (insignificant experiences)?

A

Barely remembered as your brain naturally gives attention to experiences it deems significant

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27
Q

What assesses the significance of an event?

A

Frontal cortex and its association with the reward/punishment centres in the limbic system

Limbic system is responsible for selecting what experiences are stored in memory

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28
Q

What part of the limbic system does almost all sensory information go through?

A

Hippocampus, which in turn relays information to other limbic structures

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29
Q

What happens to people with bilateral hippocampal damage?

A

Immediate (sensory) memory (seconds in length) and intact long-term memory (from time before damage), but are unable to form new long-term memories

Reflexive memory (motor skills) remain intact

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30
Q

What is an example of an infection that can cause bilateral hippocampal destruction?

A

Herpres simplex infection

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31
Q

What can memory be divided into?

A

Immediate or sensory memory

Short term memory

Immediate long-term memory

Long term memory

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32
Q

How long is immediate or sensory memory?

A

A few seconds

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33
Q

What is immediate or sensory memory

A

Describes the ability to hold experiences in the mind for a few seconds

34
Q

For immediate or sensory memory. do visual memories or auditory memories delay fastest?

A

Visual memories decay fastest (less than 1s), auditory ones slowest (less than 4s)

35
Q

How long is short term memory?

A

Seconds to hours

36
Q

What is short term memory often called?

A

Working memory

37
Q

What is short term memory used for?

A

Tasks such as dialling a phone number, mentla arithmetic, reading a sentence

38
Q

How long is immediate long-term memory?

A

Hours to weeks

39
Q

What is an example of immediate long-term memory?

A

What you did last weekend

40
Q

What is short term memory associated with?

A

Reverberating circuits

41
Q

What is immediate long-term memory associated with?

A

Chemical adaptation at the presynaptic terminal

42
Q

How long is long term memory?

A

Can be lifelong

43
Q

What is an example of long term memory?

A

Where you grew up

Childhood friends

44
Q

What is long term memory associated with?

A

Structural changes in synaptic connections

45
Q

What does short term memory depend on?

A

Maintained excitation from reverberating circuits (ie they need to be constantly refreshed)

Is an electrical phenomenon

46
Q

What is a reverberating circuit?

A

Neural circuit in which nerve impulses that were initially activated in response to stimuli are more or less continuous reactivated so that retrieval of information on demand is possible

47
Q

Explain the process of short term memory?

A

1) Each synapse in reverberating circuit is excitatory so brief stimulus at A causes long lasting neuronal activity at B as the circuit continues to excite all neurons in pathway
2) Keeps short term memory alive, if it is deemed significant eventually results in consolidation of the memory in long-term memory storage
3) If reverberation is disrupted, such as following head injury, memory loss normally results (amnesia)

48
Q
A
49
Q

What is the medical term for memory loss?

A

Amnesia

50
Q

What are the 2 types of amnesia?

A

Anterograde

Retrograde

51
Q

What is anterograde amnesia?

A

Cannot form new memories

Depending on severity can be short lived or permanent

52
Q

Destruction of what results in permanent inability to form new memories?

A

Hippocampus

53
Q

What is retrograde amnesia?

A

Cannot access (more recent) old memories

Recall of events that happened a long time ago are usually unaffected

54
Q

Damage to what results in retrograde amnesia?

A

If only thalamus is damaged and the hippocampus is spared

(suggests thalamus is required for ‘searching’ our existing memory bank

55
Q

What chemical changes does immediate long-term memory involve?

A

Increasing Ca2+ entry to presynaptic terminals, increases neurotransmitter release

56
Q

What is the process of intermediate long-term memory?

A

1) Electrical stimulation (membrane depolarisation)
2) Voltage gated Ca2+ channel opens
3) Ca2+ flows in and increases concentration inside the perminal
4) Neurotransmitter release

57
Q

What structural changes are involved in long term memory?

A

Increase in neurotransmitter (NT) release sites on presynaptic membrane

Increase in number of NT vesicles stored and released

Increase in number of presynaptic terminals

Increased amplitude in graded membrane potential (EPSP) in post-synaptic cell often observed

58
Q

What is the term used to describe the structural changes of long term memory?

A

Long term potentiation (LTP)

59
Q

What does LTP stand for?

A

Long term potentiation

60
Q

What is long term potentiation (LTP)?

A

Basicallt a well-established, well-rehearded pattern of neuronal firing unique to a particular memory

61
Q

What are the 2 types of long term memory?

A

Declarative or explicit memory

Procedural/reflexive/implicit memory

62
Q

What is declarative or explicit memory?

A

Abstract memory for events (episodic memory) and for words, rules and language (semantic memory)

63
Q

What is the abstract memory for events called?

A

Episodic memory

64
Q

What is the memory for words, rules and language called?

A

Semantic memory

65
Q

What does declarative or explicit memory rely heavily on?

A

Hippocampus

66
Q

What is procedural/reflexive/implicit memory?

A

Acquired slowly through repetition, includes motor memory for acquired motor skills such as playing tennis and rules-based learning such as always driving on the left

Thinking about these skills (memories) often impairs performance

67
Q

What is procedural/reflexive/implicit memory based mainly and independent of?

A

Based mainly in the cerebellum, is independent of the hippocampus

68
Q

What is the process called where short term memory is converted to long term memory?

A

Consolidation

69
Q

What does consolidation involve?

A

Selective stregthening of synaptic connections through repetition (for minutes to hours)

Similar process occurs in the cerebellum during motor learning

During the process memory simply exists as electrical activity and is vulnerable to being wiped out

70
Q

What does memory recall depend on?

A

Significance of an event, events deemed significant by the frontal cortex and its association centres with the reward/punishment centres of the limbic system are coded and then stored in the sensory and association areas of the cortex

71
Q

What does coding new memories result in?

A

New memories being stored alongside other existing memories the brain deems similar

72
Q

Explain the process of creating new memories?

A

1) Sensory input to sensory and association areas
2) Frontal cortex asseses “significance” with the limbic system reward and punishment areas
3) If deemed significant the frontal cortex “gates” the Papaz circuit (limbic system reward and punishment)
4) If still deemed significant the frontal cortex instructives the sensory and association areas to write into long-term memory
5) Papez circuit is “gated” again by the sensory and association ares
6) If still significant the frontal cortex instructs sensory and association areas to keep writing into long term memory
7) Keeps Papez circuit open, this continues until consolidation is complete

73
Q

What are the components of the Papaz circuit?

A
74
Q

Where are different components of a memory laid down during consolidation?

A

In different parts of the cortex, such as visual component in the visual cortex and auditory component in the auditory cortex

75
Q

What is a consequence of different components of memory being laid down in different areas of the cortex?

A

Recall can be evoked by multipled associations

Many memories have a strong emotional connections with them that can be pleasant or unpleasant

76
Q

What is Korsakoff’s syndrome also known as?

A

Chronic alcoholism

77
Q

How does Korsakoff’s syndrome impact memory?

A

Vitamin B deficiency leads to damage of limbic system structures

Ability to consolidate memory is impared

78
Q

How does Alzheimer’s disease impact memory?

A

Severe loss of cholinergic neurons throughout the brain including the hippocampus

Gross impairment of memory

79
Q

What does evidence suggest about being born with memories?

A

We are born with some inherited memories essential for survival

80
Q

What does evidence think the relation between dreaming and memory is?

A

Dreaming may be to tidy up memory stores so the same information can be packaged more compactly, may also help us forget memories that are no longer useful

81
Q

What stage of sleep is important for memory?

A

REM sleep

(subjects deprived of REM sleep show significant impairment of memory consolidation for complex cognitive tasks)

(dreaming may enable memory consolidation, reinforce weak circuits

82
Q

Why do patients with Korsakoff’s syndrome or Alzheimer’s disease have greatly reduced REM sleep?

A

Cholinergic neurons responsible for REM

6. Neurology (Med) (47 decks)

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