week 9 - long term memory - consolidation

Question 1

what is consolidation

Answer 1

consolidation is a process lasting for several hours
(days, even years) which fixes information in LTM

Question 2

consolidation
-evidence
1.

Answer 2

forgetting curve:
memory traces most vulnerable shortly after learning

Question 3

consolidation
- hermann ebbinghaus

Answer 3

learned list of nonsense syllables
learning curve - law of repetition
also: forgetting curve

Question 4

consolidation
- forgetting curve

Answer 4

dramatic forgetting shortly after initial learning

Question 5

theories on forgetting

Answer 5

1. decay
2. interference

Question 6

theories on forgetting
- decay

Answer 6

= fading of memory trace

consequence: how much remembered depends on time elapsed

Question 7

theories on forgetting
interference

Answer 7

= memory traces disrupted or obscured by other material

consequence: more interpolated events lead to more forgetting

Question 8

theories on forgetting
cockroaches’ memory

Answer 8

minami and dallenback 1946
Investigate forgettign ini cockroaches

Grid they crawl through

Would shock them at one location –> training them

Leave them in matchbox (would freeze)
Time
- No interference

Let them just run
- interference

Tested them afterwards
Ones in match box remembered better
Interference big role

Question 9

consolidation
- evidence
2.

Answer 9

cognitive neuroscience: 2 stages
1. tempory storage in hippocampus (necessary to create memory trace, but not sufficient for consolidated memories)
2. then transfer to cortex, involvement of distributed involvement of several area

Question 10

neural circuit for declarative memory
- prime structures for explicit memory

Answer 10

medial temporal regions
- hippocampus
- amygdala
- entorhinal cortex
- parahippocampal cortex
- perirhinal cortex
frontal cortex
- dorsolateral
- ventrolateral
reciprocal connections between frontal and temporal brain regions

Question 11

anterograde/retrograde amnesia
patient HM

Answer 11

HM - no new memories after the surgery (anterograde) and for a short period before the surgery (retrograde)
- this has to do with the 2 stage process
In which memory starts in hippo and then has to be consolidated
Not enough time to be stored and consolidated

Question 12

anterograde/retrograde amnesia
patient HM
why before the surgery?

Answer 12

retrograde period seems to be due to problem with consolidation
- a period when memories for events that have already happened are not yet permanently established in teh cortex
–> evidence for two stages: temporary storage and consolidation

Question 13

consolidation and sleep

Answer 13

Sleep is important for consolidation
Those who slept between better remebered
Those who didntn sleep forget faster and forget more

fewer memories formed –> less distruption of consolidation process (jenkinds and dallenback 1924)