Spatial, Temporal and Episodic Declarative Memory Systems

Question 1

What rat studies provide evidence that the hippocampus has a role in spatial memory and perception?

Answer 1

Lecture 10, slide 7-8

Question 2

What rat studies provide evidence that the hippocampus has a role in non-spatial memory and perception?

Answer 2

Lecture 10, slide 9-11

Question 3

What are place cells?

Answer 3

Lecture 10, slide 6
-Place cells are hippocampal neurons that become active when an animal enters a particular area, known as a place field. The sum of the place cells creates a cognitive map, which is a cognitive representation of the environment in which the animal is in.

Question 4

What is the spatial theory of hippocampal function? What is the relational theory of hippocampal function?

Answer 4

• The spatial theory of hippocampal function is also known as the cognitive map theory. This is the theory proposed by O’Keefe and Nadel, in which the hippocampus’ fundamental role is to process spatial relationships in the environment.
• The relational theory (Eichenbaum and Cohen, 1993) proposes that the hippocampus processes all manner of associations and sequence of events that occur in life in order to form declarative memories—such as those related to odours—and spatial processing is just one of these types of associations.

Question 5

What are spatial-view cells?

Answer 5

Lecture 10, slide 13
-they encode the direction the animal is looking and not where it currently is—unlike the place cells described by O’Keefe which suggest a positional and directional function of the hippocampus.

Question 6

What non-human primate studies provide evidence that the hippocampus has a role in spatial memory and perception? What about non-spatial memory and perception?

Answer 6

Lecture 10, slide 13, 16-18

Question 7

What non-human primate studies provide evidence that the hippocampus does not have a role in object memory and perception?

Answer 7

Lecture 10, slide 14-16

Question 8

Why is H.M. not a good model for understanding hippocampal function?

Answer 8

Lecture 10, slide 21

-he had extensive MTL damage

Question 9

What do human neuroimaging studies say about hippocampal function?

Answer 9

Lecture 10, slide 20, 25

-hippocampus has a role in spatial memory and perception

Question 10

What do human lesion/damage studies say about hippocampal function?

Answer 10

Lecture 10, slide 22-23, 26-29

-hippocampus has a role in spatial memory and perception, but not in object memory and perception

Question 11

What human studies provide evidence that the hippocampus has a role in episodic memory?

Answer 11

Lecture 10, slide 33-35

Question 12

What human studies provide evidence that the prefrontal cortex has a role in episodic memory?

Answer 12

Lecture 10, slide 36-38

Question 13

What is ecphory? What is retrieval mode (REMO)?

Answer 13

Lecture 10, slide 38

Question 14

What is mental time travel?

Answer 14

Lecture 10, slide 40

Question 15

What is the criteria for episodic-like memories?

Answer 15

Lecture 10, slide 41

Question 16

Evaluate some studies that investigate whether animals have episodic-like memory.

Answer 16

Lecture 10, slide 42-45