Neurophysiology - Memory Flashcards
Memory Process (3)
Encoding → Storage → Retrieval
Memory Process - Encoding
Process of interpreting inputs, creating a context or label, through a mixture of conscious and preconscious components, based on perception, experience and expectation.
Observing an action and being able to see myself doing it.
Memory Process - Retrieval
Ability to replicate the information stored.
Can be spontaneous or need prompting.
Memory Process - Storage
Keeping information to be used, in short or long term.
Depends mostly on the usefulness of the information encoded, creating neural loops.
Properties of Memory (5)
Span
Recognition
Recall
Relearning
Forgetting
Properties of Memory - Span
Nr of items an individual can recall in a working memory test.
Average: 7 +/- 2
Properties of Memory - Recognition
Process of remembering a pattern, event or procedure when faced with the situation. Involved in awareness and perception.
You always have a cue! multiple choice Q.
Properties of Memory - Recall
Ability to spontaneously replicate previous knowledge on a matter, with purpose of solving a problem.
Relying on your own memory, no cue. Short answer Q.
Properties of Memory - Relearning
Correlation between previous knowledge that was not used for many years but is still necessary for acquiring new information.
Taking a skill and modifying it.
Properties of Memory - Forgetting
Loss of information/non consolidation of information that was already stored in long term memory.
Spontaneous or gradual.
No possibilities for recognition, recall and relearning.
We need energy to maintain connections so useless info needs to be forgotten.
Types of Long Term Memory
Explicit (declarative): memories that can be declared, consciously discussed.
Procedural (implicit:non-declarative): Relates to memories that describe a procedure or performance of a skill.
Short Term Memory
Everything that hasn’t been consolidated yet or forgotten.
Closely related to working memory.
Working Memory
Everything immediate, up to 2 minutes.
Describes the activation of the necessary neural pathways, involving PFC, visual cortex and Broca, known as the visual loop and phonological loop.
Sensory Memory
Retain of sensation after the stimulation has ceased, in the sensory register in the parietal cortex. Subdivided:
- Iconic: image
- Echoic: sound
- Haptic: touch
Priming
Non-conscious form of memory, involved in perception of objects, words or concepts, by identifying associations before concluding a task.
Red, blue, gr…
Plum, pear, gr…
Long Term Memory
Describes information kept for future use with time varying from minutes/hours to days.
Which neurotransmitters are involved in the consolidation of memory?
↑ SE (pleasure): we want to remember what we were doing that lead to ↑ SE so that we can do it again.
↑ NE: we want to remember what we were doing that lead to ↑ NE so that we know its a threat.
If there is too much NE we wake up (nightmare).
We only consolidate memory if it was associated with ↑↑SE and ↑NE.
Responsible for developing weaker and stronger memories.
Which pathway is involved in the consolidation of memory?
AM → HPC → Striatum → AM
AM → LC (NE)
Striatum → Raphe nuclei (SE)
Procedural Memory
Implicit long term memory related to motor skills, mostly non-conscious, with cortical and subcortical elements.
Declarative Memory - Divisions (2)
Explicit long or short term.
Related to events that can be described through any form of verbal communication.
Episodic memory
Semantic memory
both together: autobiographical memory.
Episodic Memory
Memory of specific events, reconstructing what happened at any given point in life.
Remembering something because it had a strong emotional effect on you.
Semantic Memory
Structured record of facts, definitions and general knowledge of external world. Factual knowledge, free of personal experience and spatial/temporal context.
Based on episodic memory but now stand alone as factual knowledge.
Memory and Prospection
Recalling the past and imagining the future, needed for planning, overlap in brain networks. Memory acts as a foundation to recognize expectation based on previous experiences (memory-based prospection).
