Memory I Flashcards
What is forgotten amnesia?
What are the different forms of amnesia?
- Anterograde Amnesia
- amnesia into the future; can’t acquire memories anymore - Retrograde Amnesia
- amnesia into the past; can’t remember past events in our life
Are memories about personal events processed in the same way as procedural memories for how to perform a task?
What brain systems have proved to be critical for the formation of long-term memory?
- Hippocampus
- Parahippocampal, entorthinal, and perirhinal cortex
- Amygdala
- Fornix
- Mammillary bodies
- Medial temporal lobe (MTL)
- Anterior thalamic nuclei
Where are memories stored in the brain?
- Perirhinal cortex (‘what’)
- Parahippocampal cortex (‘where’)
- Hippocampus
- Mamillary bodies
By what cellular and molecular mechanisms are memories stored in the brain?
What is memory?
The result of learning (acquired and stored information)
What does memory involve?
Models of short-term/working memory
- Hierarchical Modal Model
- Atkinson & Shiffrin
- Attention and rehearsal required to establish long term memory
- Serial processing steps (4 stages) - 3 Component Working Memory Model
- Baddeley and Hitch
- Parallel processing steps (3 stages)
- A central executive handles the information and holds it in working memory
- Phonological loop (verbal memory)
- Visuospatial Sketchpad (spatial memory)
Brain areas involved in short-term memory
Types of long-term memory
- Declarative Memory (explicit memory)
- Events (episodic memory)
- Facts (semantic memory) - Nondeclarative Memory (implicit memory)
- Procedural Memory
- Perceptual Representation System
- Classical Conditioning
- Non-associative Learning
The role of the hippocampus (and associated structures) in episodic memory formation
- H.M.’s case
- Removal of hippocampus (though still some in posterior region intact) was because he suffered from very severe epilepsy
- Suffered from anterograde and retrograde episodic memory loss
- Hippocampal damage doesn’t allow you to have episodic memory anymore
Medial Temporal Lobe (MTL)
Semantic Memory Formation
MTL and Procedural Memories
- LED Flashing
- Basal ganglia most relevant to procedural learning
The Role of MTL in Memory Retrieval
- Studied by measuring brain activation during retrieval; A behavioural test that separates different forms of memory (familiarity, recollection and source recollection)
Source memory is a form of episodic memory. Why?
(Hint: Recollect what episodic memory is (the 3 Ws)
- Source memory is a form of episodic memory
- We need to recollect on the what, where, when of episodic memory and all those relate to the source of the memory
- The source is like the context with which a stimuli was presented
*Ex. in the memory retrieval task, the color of a word’s box or what was prompted of it would be indicators of its source/context
What are the main processing stages involved in learning and memory?
- Encoding: acquisition and consolidation
- Storage: representation of the acquired and consolidated information
- Retrieval: utilization of stored information to perform specific acts (use memorised items to recreate events of the past or perform motor acts)
What is sensory memory?
- Automatic, short-lived (seconds), large storage capacity
- The brief ‘image’ that you have of a stimuli after its presentation
- Contains lots of detail (high capacity) but only lasts a few seconds
- We are usually not consciously aware of it
- Main types of sensory memory: iconic (visual) and echoic (memory)
Differentiate between short-term and working memory
- Short-term: short-lived (seconds to minutes), limited capacity, passive form of information
- Working: memory content is more active (manipulated for active use)
Does a double dissociation between STM and LTM systems exist?
- Comparison between patient E.E. and H.M. (two separate lesions, two separate deficits, compared to a control person)
- E.E. had a lesion in the left angular gyrus, H.M. had a lesion in the hippocampus and the medial temporal lobe
- E.E. had LTM deficits; H.M. had STM deficits
Which brain structures contribute to LTM (and to which types of LTM)?
Examples of different forms of LTM … (episodic, familiarity, source memory, recency memory, etc..)
Is the hippocampus involved in recollection (Evidence?)
Priming
- A change in the response to a stimulus, or in the ability to identify a stimulus, following prior exposure to that stimulus
- Word fragment task
