Week 3 Flashcards
Memories are established as a result of _____
Behavioural experience (the organism interacting with its environment)
What is one problem with claiming that having the use of LTP to study synapses means we know how memories are formed in the brain?
The information acquired comes from an artificial preparation
What makes our study of LTP artificial?
- the electrical event bypasses all sensory inputs
- modified synapses are usually slices of brain tissue
What methods do neurobiologists use to influence brain function?
- experimentally damaging a brain area
- injecting drugs designed to alter some neural function
- genetic engineering to increase/decrease expression of some potential memory molecule
What is the learning-performance distinction?
Performance is influenced by other processes in addition to learning and memory processes
Short-term memories are in an ____ state, decay ____, and are _____ to disruption
- active
- rapidly
- vulnerable
Long-term memories are in an ____ state, decay ____, and are _____ to disruption
- inactive
- slowly
- less vulnerable
What is memory consolidation?
Memory traces become more stable and resistant to disruption
With storage failure, the amnesia is ____ while with retrieval failure, the amnesia is _____
- permanent
- temporary
What are four extensively used methods for studying memory?
- inhibitory avoidance conditioning
- fear conditioning
- spatial learning
- recognition memory task
What is inhibitory avoidance conditioning?
A rat is placed on the bright side of an apparatus and is shocked once it crosses to the dark side - their hesitancy to go the darker side after the training trial represents their memory of the shock
What is the ceiling effect?
A problem that occurs when the value of the performance measure approaches its so high that it can’t be further increased by some other treatment
What is the floor effect?
A measurement problem that occurs when the value of the performance measure is so low that it can’t be further reduced by some other treatment
What is auditory-cue fear conditioning?
A sound is played before a rat is shocked, and then is played again after some time to see if the rat freezes
What is contextual fear conditioning?
A rat is placed in one space in which it is shocked and then removed, then placed back after some time to see if it freezes
What is the place-learning (in a water tank) task?
A rat is placed near the edge of a pool in which there is a platform somewhere - it is tested in several trials how long it takes the rat to get to the platform (escape latency) and its path length
What is a probe trial in place-learning tasks and what is measured during one?
The rat is placed in the pool without the platform in its usual spot- annulus crossing (how many times the rat crosses where the platform was) and quadrant search time (how much time the rat spends in each quadrant of the pool) are measured
What is the object-recognition task?
A rat is allowed to explore two of the same object. Then, one of the old objects plus a new object is presented. If the rat recognizes the old object, it will spend more time exploring the new object
What is the name of the small injection needle used to damage neurons?
Cannula
What is stereotaxic surgery?
A surgery that uses a coordinate system to locate a certain area of the brain to perform procedures on it (injection, lesion)
What is different about conditional knockout methodology?
A researcher can knock out a gene in a specified brain area, and can also turn it back on
What is viral vector methodology?
The use of viruses to deliver new genetic material into specific cells
What are opsins?
The genes that code for the proteins that regulate the flow of ions across the membrane in response to light
What does DREADD stand for?
Designer receptor exclusively attacked by designer drugs
