w6 - Clinical neuropsychology #1 Flashcards
What is a popular definition of memory?
Acquiring and retaining information over time for later retrieval
What is retrograde amnesia ?
Impariment for memories created prior to injury
What is anterograde amnesia?
Impairment for memories created after injury
Impairment in learning novel (new) information
What are serial model used for ?
Useful for study of amnesia
In serial models how is memory cateogrised.
Long term memory is broken up into procedural (skills) and declarative (facts).
- Declariative is broken up into episodic ( and semantic
Define declarative memory
The counscious access to information learned previously.
Define procedural memory
Remembering ‘how to’ do something
What is episodic memory?
involve context; they include information about when and under what conditions a particular episode occurred and the order in which the events in the episode took place. Episodic memories are specific to a particular time and place because a given episode— by definition— occurs only once
What does a basic assessment of episodic memory look like ?
- Encoding - learning items
- Retrieval - how many can you remember
- Familiarity - supported recall : how many do you recognise
Ones performance is determined on each of these measures. Performance is based on ones ability relative to normal
Tulving’s conceptionalisation of episodic memory (1)
How does it work and what is autonoteic awareness ?
Allows an individual to re-experience pervious experience and to project similar experiences into the future
Autonoetic aweareness is a highly personalised feeling of (re)experiencing oneself in the autobigraphical past or present
What is a main distinction between semantic and episodic memory
Semantic : this is the memory system that makes possible the acquisition, retention and use of factual information
No autonoetic awareness of the personal past. One just remembers the fact not the ‘story’ behind where it came from
What was the general premise of Tulving’s SPI model, and how was it supported ?
This saw that information passed along a pathway way of memory. From PRS, Semantic to Episodic. This meant damage to any of these systems would not effect the others (for retreival only. not encoding)
This was supported by Vargha-Khadem
- Showed that episodic memory relises on semantic memory
- semantic memory did not rely on intact on episodic memeory
What are the Temporal Lobes (TL) described as, and why are they functionally asymmetrical?
Described as the ‘engine’ of memory.
**Functionally asymmetrical **
(left) associated with verbal memory function
(right) associated with visual memory function
What is a summary of the information pathway in memory ?
- Information is integrated in sensory systems
- Then sent to hippocampal formation for long-term storage
- Memories can then be accessed by reciprocal connections between hippocampal formation and neporal neocrotex
Mesial temoral lobe (MTL)
What would would lesions to the left MTL result in? What about the right MTL ?
Left MTL: verbal memory impairment
Right MTL: non-verbal / visual memory impairment
What is the role of the hippocampal formation and surrounding structures ?
Essential for learning and consolidating novel information
- making relationships between to informations that previously had no relationship (relational memory)
How do we measure hippocampal function?
We test their relational memory.
Paired associate learning tasks : remember an assoication between arbitrary informations
- remember the hipp’ is engaged in recreating novel assoications, not common ones
Damage to this area is shown in the decreased ability to make novel assoications
What is the role of the Perirhinal Cortex ?
Plays a specific role in the determination of item familiarity
- the sense that a stimulus has been experienced previously
How do we measure the function of the perirhinal cortex ?
Recognition task : these consist of BOTH FCR and R-K trials.
Damage to to Perirhinal cortex should show decline in recognition tasks, not knowing tasks. Decline in familiarity
FCR: forced choice recognition
R-K: Remember-Know
Is meaning an perception inherently linked? Give examples.
No.
Someone can have an impaired visual semantic memory, while having an intact perceptual processing.
Ones syntax (knowing what words mean and when to use them) is separable from simply knowing the words
What is the difference between Wernicke’s and Broca’s aphasias ?
Wernicke : lots of grammar, no content words
Broca : lots of content words, no grammar
What occurs with semantic dementia ?
Individuals slowly loose the meaning of words and visual objects
Where can you notice semantic dementia occuring in the brain?
Degeneration / atrophy in inferolateral and anterior temporal lobes
Brain regions housing semantic memory
What is anomia and when would you see it ?
Anomia = word finding difficulty. finding the right word for an object
One would likely see this during semantic dementia
What is category dissociation ?
semantic memory
This is when patients can have a loss of knowledge within a discrete category of semantic memory
We see trends in cultures and lose in particular categories
Not necessarily due to the difficulty of the concepts
What is modality dissociation ?
semantic memory
Intact semantics in the verbal modality but impaired semantics in the visual modality
How was Tulving’s modal found to be incorrect.
He stipulated that when encoding information, any damage to the semantic memory will effect episodic encoding.
Graham et al. (2000) found that patients with impaired semantic memory showed they preserved episodic memory
What is Papez’s circuit ? What 5 parts does it consist of ?
a specific brain circuit devoted to emotional experience and expression
- Hippocampas
- Mamillary bodies
- Fornix
- Anterior thalamic nuclei
- Cingulate gyrus
One of three extra-temporal brain regions connected to the MTL
What does damage to any part of the Papez’s circuit result in ?
Declarative memory impairment (poor relational memmory / encoding and independent recall)
- most reliable to hippocamus of anterior thalamic nuclei are lesioned
What is the role of frontal lobes in memory?
Involved in developing and implementing stategies for appropriate memory encoding and retrieval
What is one result of damage to the frontal lobe?
Confabulation - production of statements involving bizarre distortions of memory
frontal lobes = appropriate memory encoding and retrieval
Why do patients with frontal lobe damage do fine in recognition trials but poor in retreival ?
Because they have the ability recognise a word when it is offered to them. But do not have access to memories which allows them to retreive it themselves
Where is the diencephalon located? And what is it comprised of ?
Known as the ‘interbrain’.
Comprises of the thalamus and hypothalamus.
