Procedural memory Flashcards
Describe procedural memories.
What are the two types f procedural memories?
- Flexible
- Combinations of actions used in daily life.
- Skills and habits
2 types of procedural memories:
1. Habit and skill learning
2. Sensory - to - motor adaptations involving different reflexes. Ie conditioning.
What motor areas are involved in procedural memory?
Primary motor cortex (Initialing movement and controlling force) and premotor cortex (preparation and sequencing). The striatum is involved in visual discrimination, e.g. morris water maze with 2 floating balls above platform/not.
Cook and Kesner, 1988
8-arm radial maze.
Place and response tasks.
Place = spatial memory task, responses = procedural memory task.
If have stratal lesions, performance on response task is reduced. Performance on place task does not change.
Kermadi and Joseph, 1995.
Response sequencing.
Monkeys trained to fixate on central spot.
Cues presented in different locations in a set order.
Once the go cue is given, the monkey must replicate the pattern shown (fixate on each location).
Record the activity of neutrons in the striatum.
Specific neurons will fire when a specific pattern is displayed.
Does not represent the motor pattern in general.
What is the stratal subsystem?
What type of movements is this pathway associated with?
Projections from the entire cerebral cortex (sensory input) converge onto the striatum. Neurons with cell bodies in the striatum then project to the thalamus. There are also some (v. few) projections to the brainstem.
Neurons with cell bodies in the thalamus have axons that project to the premotor, motor and prefrontal cortex.
This pathway is involved in motor habits and skill learning.
What is the cerebellar subsystem?
What type of movements is this pathway associated with?
Projections from the cerebral cortex converge onto the cerebellum.
Neurons with cell bodies in the cerebellum have axons projecting to the spinal cord and relays with brain stem nuclei. Allowing 2-way flow of information - execution of movements - e.g. conditioned reflexes.
Neurons also have projections to the thalamus, where they synapse with neurons that project to the premotor and motor cortices (less than stratal subsystem).
This pathway is associated with feedback of actual outcome, compared to expected outcome.
Thompson, 1990’s - What did he do?
Cerebellum and conditioned responses.
Present CS closely followed by US.
After training, CS elicits a CR (e.g. eye blink in rabbits).
CR does not occur in rabbits with lesions of interpositus nucleus (nIP).
nIP is required to give the CR, but not the UR.
This can be reversibly inactivated using drugs.
prevent protein synthesis, therefore block communication between the nIP and Red nucleus (RN) using anaesthetic.
The striatal ___ learning pathway is independent of the ____ episodic memory pathway.
Procedural, episodic.
Cerebellum circuit is involved with _____.
The striatum circuit is involve with _____.
Reflex adaptations (conditioning), habits and skills.
When are the striatal procedural and MTL episodic memories not entirely independent of each other?
When the delay between the CS and the US is long.
This requires working memory - to keep the two stimuli online at the same time - for the pairing to occur.
