The Hippocampus Flashcards
Major categories in classifying memory
Implicit: unconscious
- procedural
- conditioning
Explicit: conscious
- semantic
- episodic
- autobiographical
- prospective
Implicit memory
Memory for information that is expressed unconsciously or automatically
Explicit memory
Memory that is recalled consciously and intentionally
Aka declarative memory
Procedural memory
Implicit
Performance of skilled action; often cannot easily describe how we do it
Conditioning (in memory)
Implicit
Memory for emotional relevance revealed by actions
ie, learned association of a sight or sound with threat or reward
Can be conscious or unconscious (dread or anxiety at unremarkable stimuli)
Semantic memory
Explicit
Memory for facts; often the event of learning a fact is not remembered
Episodic memory
Explicit
Memory for events; consciously reliving an event from the past
“Mental time travel” - Tulving
Autobiographical memory
Explicit - mix of semantic and episodic
Memory for events associated with facts, eg, moments from a certain day + knowing the exact date
Prospective memory
Explicit
Remembering to do something in the future
Place cell behaviour
- tagging specific locations
- mapping is not topographic or literal
- neighboring place cells are as likely to respond to nearby areas as distant ones
- can suddenly change their firing pattern from one pattern to another (“re-mapping”)
- fluctuations of place fields encode information about the recent history of sensory experiences
What do grid cells do?
- organize space into a gridlike map and send info to hippocampus
- hold constant (do not remap like place cells)
- located in entorhinal cortex (anterior lobe next to hippocampus)
Cognitive map
Representation, or mental map, of the spatial environment, to support memory and guide future action
- locations of relevant objects
- used to wayfind and recall important features of environment
How do schemas influence cognitive maps?
Schemas: mental scripts of how certain situations tend to unfold; a way to organize memories as they are laid down
- metaphorical maps; irrelevant information is excluded
- influence attention and absorption of new knowledge –> prediction error is minimized because we notice things that are consistent with expectation/fit into our schema
- contradictions to schema are reinterpreted as exceptions or distorted to fit
- cognitive maps can be very different from the actual place
How do cognitive maps use landmarks?
Landmarks link mental map to sensory information
- location in relation to something perceivable in the world
What does planning a route involve?
Hippocampus - actively remember features of the landscape, your location, and the location of your destination
Visual cortex, including PPA
