Memory/Visual perception

Question 1

Memory can be disrupted independently. The different types are…

Answer 1

Episodic
Semantic
Working
Procedural

Question 2

Episodic memory is for…

Answer 2

Specific events

Question 3

Semantic memory is for…

Answer 3

Facts

Question 4

Working memory is for…

Answer 4

Short term and rehearsal

Question 5

Procedural memory is for…

Answer 5

Motor memory

Question 6

Anterograde amnesia is…

Answer 6

Poor ability to acquire new memory.
Impairs - declarative memory like events and facts
Spares - working memory of ongoing rehearsal, non declarative memory like perceptual memory (familiarity) and procedural memory (motor skills and habits)

Question 7

Causes of anterograde amnesia are…

Answer 7

Thiamine B1 vitamin deficiency due to alcoholism and poor diet which leads to poor thiamine absorption from the intestines which produces bilateral degeneration of mammillary bodies.
Bilateral removal of temporal lobes - temporal lobectomy

Question 8

Patient HM

Answer 8

Major seizures of epilepsy that drugs could not control. Anterior hippocampal regions were surgically removed. This was successful at combating his epilepsy with no effects to his IQ or personality but had deficits specific to the formation of new memories. He was left with a complete absence of new episodic memories, he reported his age and the date as prior to the operation, and was unable to remember events people or locations after the operation. Formation of new semantic memories was disrupted and his language was frozen in the 50’s but intact working memory, normal digit span and rate of forgetting. He could hold a conversation but he would later forget. His procedural memory was in tact and he could learn new tasks

Question 9

Anterograde amnesia is…

Answer 9

Since lesion

Question 10

Retrograde amnesia is…

Answer 10

Prior to lesion.

HM had temporally graded retrograde amnesia.

Question 11

The role of the hippocampus is…

Answer 11

It does not store memories. It may enable consolidation of new memories.

Question 12

Marslen-Wilson and Teuber (1975) how long does it take for the hippocampus to consolidate new memories

Answer 12

HM tested on photos of celebrities over the years. This suggests that retrograde amnesia spans decades and that more distant memories are relatively preserved.

Question 13

Dissociations are when…

Answer 13

Some tasks are impaired and other tasks are spared. This suggests that these tasks use different resources.
Semantic dementia patients have impaired semantic memory but in tact episodic.

Question 14

Double dissociations are…

Answer 14

Two anatomical patient groups with different lesion sites.
One group has task A spared and talk B impaired.
The other group has task A impaired and task B spared.
This suggests that tasks rely to some extent on different brain structures.
E.g semantic dementia and HM or Wernicke and Broca

Question 15

Agnosia is…

Answer 15

A lack of knowledge or perception. The inability to recognise objects which can be visual, auditory or somatosensory. However it is modality specific and you are able to name the object through other senses

Question 16

Apperceptive agnosia is…

Answer 16

Unable to perceive the full shape of an object despite intact low level processing of acuity, brightness discrimination and colour vision. The inability to extract a global structure which is evident in impairments in drawing copying and visual recognition.

Question 17

Associative agnosia is…

Answer 17

The ability to perceive the full shape of an object but inability to recognise or name it.
They are able to perceive the whole form of shapes and have no problem copying, but they are unable to draw from verbal instruction or recognise using vision.
This can be explained by a disconnection between visual representation and language, caused by damage to the left occipital cortex which causes issues with language.

Question 18

Prosopagnosia is…

Answer 18

The inability to recognise faces visually. Patients are able to describe features of the face but cannot tell who it belongs to. They are able to identify people through voice or hairstyle.

Question 19

Prosopagnosia is a result of…

Answer 19

Damage to the fusiform gyrus in the inferior part of the occipital/temporal lobe, usually on the right side.
Fusiform face area (FFA) is supported by Kanwisher (1997) imaging which showed fusiform gyrus specifically activated in healthy adults when looking at faces

Question 20

Are faces special ?

Answer 20

We are experts at processing faces
Faces have very similar faces but we can still recognise individuals
The configuration of features in unique to an individual
A specialised face process in system in the brain may process faces holistically

Question 21

Inversion effects - thatcher illusion works because…

Answer 21

Upside down faces are more difficult to recognise as it is difficult to process the configuration of features.
Generally we only notice something is wrong when the faces are the correct way up as that is when we use face processing mechanisms effectively.

Question 22

Prosopagnosia is not just for faces…

Answer 22

Most prosopagnosics have difficulty recognise types of cars or breeds of dogs.
This is supported by Gauthier (2000) who found that the FFA was activated when looking at pictures of birds or cars