section 11.1

Question 1

learning

Answer 1

how experience changes the brain.

Question 2

memory

Answer 2

how these changes (experiences) are stored and subsequently reactivated.

Question 3

Bilateral medial temporal lobectomy

Answer 3

the removal of the medial portions of both temporal lobes, including most of the hippocampus, amygdala, and adjacent cortex.

Question 4

lobectomy

Answer 4

is an operation in which a lobe, or a major part of one, is removed from the brain.

Question 5

Lobotomy

Answer 5

an operation in which a lobe, or a major part of one, is separated from the rest of the brain by a large cut but is not removed.

Question 6

Retrograde (backward-acing amnesia)

Answer 6

deficits of the ability to remember things before the brain damaging event.

Question 7

Anterograde (forward-acting) amnesia

Answer 7

deficits of the ability to remember things after the brain damaging event.

Question 8

short term memory

Answer 8

storage of new information for brief periods of time while a person attends to it.

Question 9

long term memory

Answer 9

storage of new information once the person stops attending to it.

Question 10

global amnesia

Answer 10

amnesia for information presented in all sensory modalities.

Question 11

incomplete picture test

Answer 11

a nonsensorimotor test of memory that employs five sets of fragmented drawings. Each set contains drawing of the same 20 objects, but the sets differ in their degree of sketchiness

Question 12

Three contributions from H.M.’s case proved influential:

Answer 12

• Showed that the medial temporal lobes play an especially important role in memory. Challenged the then prevalent view that memory functions are diffusely and equivalently distributed throughout the brain. his case renewed the effort to relate individual brain structures to specific mnemonic (memory-related) processes. Particularly spawned an effort aimed at clarifying the mnemonic functions of the hippocampus and other medial temporal lobe structures.
• The discovery that bilateral medial temporal lobectomy abolished H.M.’s ability to form certain kinds of long-term memories without disrupting his performance on tests of shirt-term memory or his remote memory (memory from experiences in the distant past) supported the theory that there are different modes of storage for short-term, long-term, and remote memory. H.M.’s specific problem seemed to be a difficulty in memory consolidation (the translation of short-term memories into long-term memories).
• First case to reveal that an amnesic patient might claim no recollection of a previous experience, while demonstrating memory for it by improve performance. Lead to the discovery of two distinct categories of long-term memories: explicit and implicit memories.

Question 13

explicit memories

Answer 13

known as declarative memories; conscious long-term memories.

Question 14

implicit memories

Answer 14

long-term memories without conscious awareness.

Question 15

Many people with amnesia lose their ability to form

Answer 15

explicit memories while maintain their ability to form implicit memories.

Question 16

medial temporal lobe amnesia

Answer 16

neuropsychological patients with a profile of menemonic deficits similar to those of H.M., with preserved intellectual functioning and with evidence of medial temporal lobe damage.

Question 17

repetition priming tests

Answer 17

tests that assess implicit memory.

Question 18

Explicit long-term memories come in two varieties:

Answer 18

semantic and episodic

Question 19

semantic memories

Answer 19

explicit memories for general facts or information.

Question 20

episodic memories

Answer 20

explicit memories for the particular events of one’s life. People with medial temporal lobe amnesia have particular difficulty with these memories.
- It is difficult to spot episodic memory deficits because neuropsychologists usually have no way of knowing the true events of a patient’s life and in part because the patients become very effective at providing semantic answers to episodic questions.

Question 21

Global cerebral ischemia

Answer 21

experienced an interruption of blood supply to their entire brains; often suffer from medial temporal lobe amnesia.

Question 22

R.B.’s case

Answer 22

brain damage that was restricted largely to the pyramidal cell layer of just one part of the hippocampus – the CA1 subfield. Suggests that hippocampal damage by itself can product medial temporal lobe amnesia.

Question 23

Transient global amnesia

Answer 23

defined by its sudden onset in the absence of any obvious cause in otherwise normal adults. Provides the strongest evidence that selective hippocampal damage can cause medial temporal lobe amnesia. Severe anterograde amnesia and moderate retrograde amnesia for explicit episodic memories, however, the amnesia in this case is transient, typically lasting only between 4 to 6 hours.

Question 24

diffusion weight brain imaging technique

Answer 24

identified the cause of transient global amnesia; identified abnormalities to the CA1 subfield in the hippocampus. The time course of these abnormalities – they are not usually apparent for several hours after the beginning of the attack and have usually cleared up 10 days layer – are suggestive of stroke-induced damage.