w6 - Clinical neuropsychology #1

Question 1

What is a popular definition of memory?

Answer 1

Acquiring and retaining information over time for later retrieval

Question 2

What is retrograde amnesia ?

Answer 2

Impariment for memories created prior to injury

Question 3

What is anterograde amnesia?

Answer 3

Impairment for memories created after injury

Impairment in learning novel (new) information

Question 4

What are serial model used for ?

Answer 4

Useful for study of amnesia

Question 5

In serial models how is memory cateogrised.

Answer 5

Long term memory is broken up into procedural (skills) and declarative (facts).
- Declariative is broken up into episodic ( and semantic

Question 6

Define declarative memory

Answer 6

The counscious access to information learned previously.

Question 7

Define procedural memory

Answer 7

Remembering ‘how to’ do something

Question 8

What is episodic memory?

Answer 8

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

Question 9

What does a basic assessment of episodic memory look like ?

Answer 9

1. Encoding - learning items
2. Retrieval - how many can you remember
3. 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

Question 10

Tulving’s conceptionalisation of episodic memory (1)

How does it work and what is autonoteic awareness ?

Answer 10

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

Question 11

What is a main distinction between semantic and episodic memory

Answer 11

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

Question 12

What was the general premise of Tulving’s SPI model, and how was it supported ?

Answer 12

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

Question 13

What are the Temporal Lobes (TL) described as, and why are they functionally asymmetrical?

Answer 13

Described as the ‘engine’ of memory.

**Functionally asymmetrical **
(left) associated with verbal memory function
(right) associated with visual memory function

Question 14

What is a summary of the information pathway in memory ?

Answer 14

• 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

Question 15

Mesial temoral lobe (MTL)

What would would lesions to the left MTL result in? What about the right MTL ?

Answer 15

Left MTL: verbal memory impairment
Right MTL: non-verbal / visual memory impairment

Question 16

What is the role of the hippocampal formation and surrounding structures ?

Answer 16

Essential for learning and consolidating novel information
- making relationships between to informations that previously had no relationship (relational memory)

Question 17

How do we measure hippocampal function?

Answer 17

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

Question 18

What is the role of the Perirhinal Cortex ?

Answer 18

Plays a specific role in the determination of item familiarity
- the sense that a stimulus has been experienced previously

Question 19

How do we measure the function of the perirhinal cortex ?

Answer 19

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

Question 20

Is meaning an perception inherently linked? Give examples.

Answer 20

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

Question 21

What is the difference between Wernicke’s and Broca’s aphasias ?

Answer 21

Wernicke : lots of grammar, no content words

Broca : lots of content words, no grammar

Question 22

What occurs with semantic dementia ?

Answer 22

Individuals slowly loose the meaning of words and visual objects

Question 23

Where can you notice semantic dementia occuring in the brain?

Answer 23

Degeneration / atrophy in inferolateral and anterior temporal lobes

Brain regions housing semantic memory

Question 24

What is anomia and when would you see it ?

Answer 24

Anomia = word finding difficulty. finding the right word for an object

One would likely see this during semantic dementia

Question 25

What is category dissociation ?

semantic memory

Answer 25

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

Question 26

What is modality dissociation ?

semantic memory

Answer 26

Intact semantics in the verbal modality but impaired semantics in the visual modality

Question 27

How was Tulving’s modal found to be incorrect.

Answer 27

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

Question 27

What is Papez’s circuit ? What 5 parts does it consist of ?

Answer 27

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

Question 28

What does damage to any part of the Papez’s circuit result in ?

Answer 28

Declarative memory impairment (poor relational memmory / encoding and independent recall)
- most reliable to hippocamus of anterior thalamic nuclei are lesioned

Question 29

What is the role of frontal lobes in memory?

Answer 29

Involved in developing and implementing stategies for appropriate memory encoding and retrieval

Question 30

What is one result of damage to the frontal lobe?

Answer 30

Confabulation - production of statements involving bizarre distortions of memory

frontal lobes = appropriate memory encoding and retrieval

Question 31

Why do patients with frontal lobe damage do fine in recognition trials but poor in retreival ?

Answer 31

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

Question 32

Where is the diencephalon located? And what is it comprised of ?

Answer 32

Known as the ‘interbrain’.

Comprises of the thalamus and hypothalamus.