Task 2 + 3 Flashcards
Brain Areas - skill learning
- cerebellum
- basal ganglia
- motor cortex
classical Conditioning- brain areas
- cerebellum
- hippocampus
Instrumental conditioning -Brain areas
- cerebellum
- basal ganglia (dopamine)
Standard consolidation theory
- hippocampus as tutor of the brain
- several components of episodic memory are linked via the hippocampus
- through reactivating a memory trace is build and the episodic memory components form a activation network
- independent form hippocampus
- predicts GRADED retrograde amnesia
- > numbers of memories u can recall from moment of injury can increases the further u go back in time
- > newer memories are not yet independent form hippocampus
- hippocampus produces cellular consolidation and plasticity in the emerging memory trace every night
- > at the end hippocampus is not longer necessary
Standard consolidation theory - disrupting hippocampal functioning
- old memories would be unaffected because they are already independent
- newly formed memories would be disrupted
- > following the pattern the newer the memory the stronger the interference
Multiple trace theory
- hippocampus serves as librarian of the Brain
- several components of episodic memory are linked via the hippocampus
- always keeps mediating storage and retrieval!
- episodic memories stay dependent -> hippocampus provides the spatial context
- predicts FLAT retrograde amnesia
- After each trial of memory, the memory will be re-consolidated in a new form
- during consolidation but also reconsolidation the memory is vulnerable
- place cells in hippocampus encode spatial context to which events are bound
- episodic memories = events + spatial context -> network representing episodic memory will always involve the hippocampus
Reconsolidation: every time memory is retrieved and stored it gets slightly modified by current events
Multiple trace theory - Hippocampal lesion
- predicts full retrograde amnesia and anterograde amnesia
- severity of cortical lesion would be predictive of the degree of lost memories
Source amnesia
-remembering the fact but not the source
Example:
-plagiarism/ cryptomnesia: thinking your thought was original when in fact you had known it from somewhere else
Interference - 2 types
-retrieval of either or both is impaired
Proactive interference:
-previously acquired info disrupts retrieval of newly learned info
Retroactive interference:
-recently acquired information disrupts retrieval of older memories
Retrograde amnesia
- damage to hippocampus
- > old episodic memories cannot be retrieved
- follows ‘ribot gradient’ -> the older the memories, the less likely will they be affected
-evidence from case studies (e.g. patient E.P.)
Anterograde amnesia
- after damage to hippocampus
- > new episodic memories cannot be formed
Evidence: from rat collecting food in a maze
-> rats with lesions do more mistakes bc they cant remember where they have been already
Directed forgetting
- frontal cortex can suppress hippocampal activity
- through cognitive control storage/ retrieval of info can be inhibited
Transient global amnesia
- severe anterograde and slight retrograde degree of amnesia
- caused by ECT, drugs, interruption of blood flow
Functional amnesia
- severe retrograde and anterograde
- psychological causes (trauma)
Infantile Amnesia
- no autobiographical memory before age of 3
- hippocampus and frontal cortex not fully developed
Plasticity
- experience modulates synaptic activity
- > memory can be understood as plastic changes of neural circuits
Long-term Potentiation (LTP)
- enhancement of connection,making subsequent activation more effective
- example: Sensitization
Long-term Depression (LTD)
- recent activation makes synaptic transmission less efficient
- example: Habituation
Possible enhancements of neural connection
- more neurotransmitter (NT) released
- larger pre-and postsynaptic area
- interneuron causes increased NT release
- new synapses formed
- shift in synaptic input
Long term potentiation - general idea
- repeated and sufficiently strong activation makes a neuron more sensitive
- > can last minutes or hours
-synapses in the hippocampus show to have this learning pattern (Hebbian synapses)
Dual trace hypothesis
- two cells that are repeatedly active together will facilitate each other
- > what fires together, wires together
Fast plasticity
- works based on existing proteins
- does not require gene expression
- can be based on a single stimulation
Fast plasticity - step by step
- glutamate released from presynaptic cell
- opens AMPA receptors
- Na+ flows through AMPA and depolarizes postsynaptic cell
- Mg2+ leaves NMDA receptor
- Ca2+ flows into postsynaptic cell and activates protein kinases CaM kinase
- CaMK makes more AMPA receptors available
Slow plasticity
- requires new protein synthesis
- requires gene expression
- requires repeated experience or co-activation