Week 6: Memory systems Flashcards

1
Q

What is learning?

A

The process of acquiring new information

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2
Q

What is memory?

A

Learning that is actually stored and retrieved

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3
Q

What are the 3 stages of learning and memory?

A

Encoding
Storage
Retrieval

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4
Q

What happens in the encoding stage?

A

We process incoming information
Acquisition: registration and analysis of sensory input
Consolidation: creating a stronger representation over time

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5
Q

What happens in the storage stage?

A

Permanent representation of the information is formed and stored

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6
Q

What happens in the retrieval stage?

A

Stored information is retrieved back into conscious awareness

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7
Q

What is the capacity of short-term and working memory?

A

Limited capacity
7 +/- 2
Can try and increase Capacity by chunking etc

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8
Q

What is visual information called? and how long does it last?

A

Iconic

300-500 milliseconds

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9
Q

What is auditory information called? And how long does it last?

A

Echoic

9-10 seconds

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10
Q

What can long term memory be divided into?

A

Declarative (explicit - we can explicitly recall and have conscious access)

Non-declarative (Previous experience may facilitate a response but we don’t necessarily have a conscious recollection)

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11
Q

What can declarative (explicit) memory be divided into?

A

Events/episodes (episodic)

Facts (semantic)

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12
Q

What can non-declarative (implicit) memory be divided into?

A

Procedural (skills)
Perceptual representation system (perceptual priming to respond in a particular way)
Classical conditioning (responses between 2 stimuli)
Non-associative learning (habituation, sensitisation)

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13
Q

What does the medial temporal lobe include?

A

The hippocampus, parahippocampal, entorhinal and perirhinal cortices

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14
Q

What does damage to the medial temporal lobe result in?

A

Severe amnesia

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15
Q

What connects the hippocampus to other subcortical structures?

A

The fornix

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16
Q

What connects the hippocampus to the cortex

A

Entorhinal cortex and fornix

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17
Q

What other subcortical structures are important for memory?

A
  • Anterior thalamic nuclei
  • Mammillary bodies
  • Amygdala (tagging emotional content to memories)
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18
Q

Where is the hippocampus located?

A

Located in the temporal lobe of each hemisphere

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19
Q

What structures are a part of the hippocampal formation

A
  • Parahippocampal gyrus (adjacent cortex)
  • Dentate Gyrus (Strip of gray matter between the 2)
  • Entorhinal cortex & Subiculum (both involved in the flow of information through the hippocampus)
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20
Q

What is the hippocampal formation divided into?

A

Divided into 4 regions CA1-CA4 (CA = cornu amonis)

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21
Q

How does the hippocampus receive information from the rest of the cerebral cortex?

A

Via the perforant pathway

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22
Q

What is the perforant pathway?

A

Starts in entorhinal cortex and projects to the dentate gyrus

Fibres then leave the dentate gyrus to the CA3 region

Neurons in CA3 region send axons to neurons in CA1

Then projected to the neurons in subiculum

Travels back to entorhinal cortex and then out

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23
Q

How is the prefrontal cortex involved in memory?

A

Involved in retrieval and storage - damage here leads to problems in episodic memory particularly regarding the order of events

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24
Q

Dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and memory?

A

Important for working memory processes - manipulating information

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25
Q

What role does the inferotemporal play in memory?

A

Storage of visual representations

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26
Q

What structures mediate implicit memory?

A

Sensory motor circuits

- cerebellum and striatum

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27
Q

Cerebellum and implicit memory?

A

Important for sensory motor skill learning and pavlovian conditioning

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28
Q

Striatum and implicit memory?

A

Important for habit formation

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29
Q

Explain Atkinson & Shriffrin’s Modal model of memory

A

Have sensory information that comes into the information processing system and is first stored in a sensory register

Items are then selected via attention and moved into short term storage (STM) and then if we rehearse this information, we can move this information into LTM

Information can be lost through decay (STM) and/or by interference

30
Q

What are some limitations to the Modal model?

A

Cases such as HM suggest that information might not need to move through STM to get to LTM

31
Q

What is the current consensus for the STM and LTM stores?

A

Both supported by the same neural networks but these may work in different ways of are involved to a different extent

32
Q

What does Baddeley and Hitch’s model of working memory suggest?

A

We bring information into our short term or working memory and perform mental manipulations on it

  • suggest visual and auditory memories are stored separately

3 main components:

  1. central executive
  2. Phonological loop
  3. visuospatial sketchpad
33
Q

What is the central executive (WM model)?

A

Role in decision making, planning of responses, and coordinating the two other systems

34
Q

What is the phonological loop (WM model)?

A

Deals with auditory, verbal info stored in an acoustic code
Has:
Articulatory loop (inner voice) - subvocal rehearsal
Phonological store (inner ear) - processes speech perception and stores spoken words

35
Q

What is the visuospatial sketchpad (WM model)?

A

Stores visuospatial code, visual imagery etc

36
Q

What supports Baddeley and Hitch’s model of working memory?

A

We can perform visual and audio tasks simultaneously

As well as neuroimaging

37
Q

What is anterograde amnesia?

A

An inability to acquire new long term memories

38
Q

What is retrograde amnesia?

A

A loss of memories acquired prior to amnesia

39
Q

What kind of amnesia did HM have?

A

Medial temporal lobe amnesic syndrome

Severe anterograde amnesia

  • Particularly for episodic
  • Some new semantic info but no memory of learning this info

Retrograde amnesia for approx. 2 years prior to surgery and some selctive loss of certain events up to 10 years prior

40
Q

What memory type was retained in HM?

A

Spared STM

Spared non-declarative memory

41
Q

Digit span +1 test?

A

Researchers would read a list of digits and each time recited, would add another digit. Each time the patient would repeat these digits back

  • Control participants do well on this can keep remembering
  • patients with medial temporal lobe amnesia (HM), after the limits of STM (7+/-2 items) this task becomes difficult - this is the point where controls would rely on their long term memory

This is similar to the block-tapping memory span task in which HM performed very similarly once STM capacity ran out

42
Q

How did researchers determine that HM still had some degree of semantic memory capabilities after the surgery despite anterograde amnesia?

A

Knew names and faces of celebrities who became famous after the surgery

Able to draw a floor plan of a home he lives in after surgery

HOWEVER
Couldn’t determine the source of this information (source amnesia)

43
Q

Explain the case KC

A

Severe anterograde amnesia and retrograde amnesia

Some factual knowledge of life and intact for general world knowledge (semantic memory)

ALSO SHOWED INTACT CONCEPTUAL PRIMING (ability to learn new semantic memories)

44
Q

What do cases like HM and KC tell us about episodic and semantic memory?

A

That they are supported by dissociable systems in the brain and semantic memory relies less on the hippocampus than episodic

45
Q

EP case study?

A

73 year old man, developed severe amnesia following herpes - damage to medial temporal lobe

Could not acquire new episodic memories but could learn to make category judgements based on whether or not they belong to a previously viewed category

Preserved abilities to recognise previous events on the basis of signal strength or familiarity rather than recollection

46
Q

HM showed normal implicit learning and non-declarative knowledge - how can this be tested?

A

Can be tested using procedural learning tasks such as:

  • mirror tracing tasks
  • serial reaction time task
47
Q

What is a mirror tracing task? How did HM go on it?

A

Look in mirror and trace around an object eg. star

This task is difficult because you’re looking in a mirror and hand seems to go left but really goes right and vice versa

HM able to perform this task and be able to improve even though he had no recollection of learning it

48
Q

Classical conditioning for HM?

A

Was able to learn a conditioned response in an eye blink task - puff of air and tone = eye blink response

When the gap between the two stimuli widens, becomes harder

49
Q

What concepts of amnesia provide evidence for LTM consolidation?

A

Because we typically see a gradient of retrograde amnesia - older memories are more likely to be spared with newer ones more likely to be lost

Suggesting older memories are stored in a more permanent form

50
Q

What is memory consolidation? and what processes are involved, what do they suggest?

A

How LTM develops overtime after initial acquisition

  1. Initial rapid consolidation involving the hippocampus and medial temporal lobe
  2. Slower permanent consolidation which is an interaction between the medial temporal lobe and neocortex

Suggests different structures are involved in acquisition and in storage

51
Q

What does the dual trace theory suggest?

A

That the hippocampus holds memory until is is stored else where

52
Q

What is the current view of the hippocampus’ role in memory consolidation?

A

That the hippocampus stores memory every time it is recalled - every time memory is recalled it becomes more resistant to disruption

53
Q

What is the delayed non-match to sample task

A

Monkey moves sample object to obtain food and a screen is lowered, after a variable periods of time, monkey is shown the same sample object and another unfamiliar object - they need to remember to pick the new object and not the initial one

Lowered with medial temporal lobe problems - issues with object recognition

54
Q

What is global cerebral ischemia?

A

Interruption of blood supply to the entire brain

55
Q

RB case study?

A

Global cerebral ischemia - lost bloody supply during surgery

Had dense anterograde and retrograde amnesia (1-2 years)

Hippocampus appeared to be intact except for lesions in the CA1 cell layer

56
Q

Are there any short term amnesic syndromes?

A

Yes - transient global amnesia

typically lasts 4-6 hours

occurs due to disrupted blood flow to MTL and diencephalon

sudden anterograde amnesia and variable retrograde amnesia 24-48hrs

57
Q

What is korsakoff’s syndrome?

A

Caused by chronic consumption of alcohol
Results from thiamine deficiency (vit b)

Severe anterograde and retrograde amnesia - greater declarative loss

58
Q

Which areas degenerate in Alzheimer’s?

A

The basal forebrain

- also diffuse to MTL and hippocampus

59
Q

What is post traumatic amnesia?

A

Following a closed head injury - blow to head has resulted in concussion or coma

  • Generally both anterograde and retrograde amnesia
60
Q

What evidence (cell-based) has shown that hippocampus is involved in spatial memory?

A

Hippocampal place cells
Neurons that respond only when a subject is in a specific location

When a rat is first placed in an unfamiliar environment none of its hippocampal neurons have a place in that environment. As the rat familiarises itself with the environment, hippocampal neurons acquire a place field in it

obtain spatial info from GRID CELLS

61
Q

What are entorhinal grid cells?

A

Entorhinal neurons that each have an extensive array of evenly spread place cells which map the corresponding environment

  • head direction cells (when head turns in particular direction)
  • border cells (fire when animal is at the border of a particular environment)
62
Q

Time cells in MTL?

A

code time based aspects of an experience

63
Q

Social spaces in MTL?

A

Learning about social organisation

64
Q

Concept cells (Jennifer aniston neurons)?

A

Respond to ideas or concept of person or thing rather than visual stimuli etc.

65
Q

Engram cells?

A

Encode for specific memories

- can use optogenetics to retrieve or forget these memories by exciting or depressing the neurons

66
Q

In retrieval studies, what has been found regarding retrieval activation?

A

Left and right hippocampus were active only for the activation of correctly remembered words - not if they correctly thought they were familiar, not for misses etc

Not recognition based on familiarity alone

67
Q

What brain area has increased activation during recognition confidence?

A

The perirhinal cortex

relates to familiarity based item retrieval

68
Q

What is the BIC model of episodic memory?

A

Binding of items and context

What and who information as well as where and when information

Hippocampus is thought to bind this together to provide relational or episodic memory

69
Q

What is LTP (long term potentiation)?

A

a process by which synaptic connections between neurons become stronger with frequent activation.

Develops only if the firing of the pre-synaptic neuron is followed by the firing of a post synaptic neuron the cooccurrence of firing in pre-and post synaptic cells is the critical factor in LTP

70
Q

What is associative LTP?

A

Requires NMDA stimulation and Ca entry into the post synaptic neuron

71
Q

Non-associative LTP?

A

Nothing occurring post-synaptically, facilitation is presynaptic and doesn’t require NMDA receptor stimulation

72
Q

Explain NMDA and associative long term potentiation

A

NMDA receptors are blocked by mg ions, however, when glutamate binds to the AMPA receptors it depolarises the cell. This causes voltage dependent mg blockage to be removed allowing calcium ions to enter the cell via the NMDA receptor. This initiated cellular mechanisms that cause more AMPA receptors to be inserted into the cell membrane - the post synaptic cell is more sensitive to glutamate because it has more receptors to respond. STRONGER SYNAPSES