Neuroscience Of Learning/Memory

Question 1

What do the four lobes generally control?

Answer 1

Frontal: Planning, actions, past
Parietal: Touch, sense of space
Temporal: Audio, leaning, memory recall
Occipital: Visual info

Question 2

What are the cerebellum, brainstem and thalamus in charge of?

Answer 2

Cerebellum: Coordination of sensation and movements

Brainstem: Regulates automatic functions

Thalamus: Receives sensory signals and sends them to cortical regions

Question 3

What are the basal ganglia, hippocampus and amygdala in charge of?

Answer 3

Basal ganglia: Learning, planning, skilled movements

Hippocampus: Learning new facts and how to get to places

Amygdala: Emotional memories

Question 4

What did Franz Joseph Gall discover?

Answer 4

Phrenology: Study that attempts to determine mental abilities by measuring head size/shape

Question 5

What are the parts of a neuron?

Answer 5

Dendrites, cell body/soma, axons

Question 6

What are the types of glia?

Answer 6

Astrocytes: Help transfer blood/nutrients to neurons

Ogligodendrocytes: Wrap myelin around neurons to speed up action potentials

Question 7

What is imprinting?

Answer 7

A newborn animal forms lifelong attachment to whatever movements it views early on (usually the mother)

Question 8

What are enriched environments?

Answer 8

Places with lots of sensory stimulation and opportunities to learn and explore

Question 9

What was found in taxi drivers with more on the job training?

Answer 9

Had larger hippocampus and intensive spatial learning

Question 10

What did Donald O. Hebb discover?

Answer 10

Hebbian learning: Neurons that fire together, wire together. Cells out of sync, lose their link.

Question 11

What is the Bell-Magendie law of neural specialization?

Answer 11

In the spine, sensory fibres are separate from motor fibres

Question 12

When signals enter through the thalamus, they are distributed to the..?

Answer 12

Primary sensory cortices

Question 13

What does functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) measure? What are its pros and cons?

Answer 13

Measures different levels of oxygenated and deoxygenated blood.

Pros:

• Good spatial resolution
• Decent temporal resolution
• No radiation
• No risks

Cons:

• Only tracks blood flow, not neurotransmitters
• There is ongoing brain activity

Question 14

What electroencephalography (EEG) measure? What are its pros and cons?

Answer 14

Measures electrical activity in brain using electrodes.
Also event-related potentials (ERP): EEGs averaged across many repetitions of same event

Pros:

• Can monitor learning/activity
• Detect rapid changes with more temporal precision
• Shows activity over large area of brain

Cons:
- Lacks spatial precision

Question 15

What is single-cell recording?

Answer 15

Uses implanted electrode to detect electrical activity (spiking) in a single neuron

Question 16

What is highly superior autobiographical memory (HSAM)?

Answer 16

People with this can remember any event in their life with extreme detail.
fMRI showed that there was increased activity in prefrontal cortex, hippocampus and junction between frontal and parietal lobes

Question 17

After looking for the location of the engram (physical change in braun that forms basis of memory), Karl Lashley thought of the Theory of Equipotentiality. Explain.

Answer 17

Brain operates as a whole to store memories, not just one area

Question 18

What are neuromodulators?

Answer 18

Neurotransmitter that modulates activity in a large number of neurons rather than a single synapse

Question 19

What is the difference between long-term potentiation (LTP) and long-term depression (LTD)?

Answer 19

LTP: Synaptic transmission becomes more effective as a result of recent activity (strengthening of neural connections)

LTD: Synaptic transmission becomes less effective as a result of recent activity (presynaptic neuron constantly fires but postsynaptic doesn’t)

Question 20

What’s the difference between transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) and transcranial direct-current stimulation (tDCS)?

Answer 20

TMS: Uses strong magnetic pulses over the skull to change activity in cerebral cortex

tDCS: Uses low-level electrical currents through electrodes on the scalp

Question 21

How do drugs manipulate neural activity?

Answer 21

1) Increase/decrease ability of presynaptic neuron to produce/release neurotransmitters
2) Increase/decrease ability of postsynaptic receptors to receive chemical messages
3) Can alter synapse cleanup (reuptake)

Question 22

What are the pros and cons of using drugs to alter neural activity?

Answer 22

Pros:

• Interfaces with chemical language of the brain
• Different chemicals available to produce different effects

Cons:

• Not selective to a brain region
• Brain can create a tolerance