Chapter 4: Amnesia

Question 1

What are the two historical approaches the memory?

Answer 1

behaviorist

cognitivist

Question 2

What is the behaviorist approach to memory?

Answer 2

stimulus-stimulus or stimulus-response (S-R) linkage

chaining

Skinner, and Watson

Question 3

What is the cognitivist approach to memory?

Answer 3

use of ideation

use of prior knowledge

Tolman, Bartlett

Question 4

How did Tolman’s maze demonstrate latent learning?

Answer 4

1. let the rats explore the maze
2. put a piece of food, the rats go straight to the food
3. then put a block at position A so the rats could go through either path 2 or path 3 to get food; through S-R should be a 50/50 chance, but most rats took path 2 cause its shorter, first clue to cognition
4. then put the block at position B, so rats can’t take path 2; the rats took path 3 cause they recognized that path 2 won’t work even though its shorter

Question 5

What is amnesia?

Answer 5

the loss, absence, or dysfunction of memory in the absence of other cognitive symptoms

Question 6

What is “organic” or damage-induced amnesia?

Answer 6

memory was fine, then damage occurred

Ribot (damage), Korsakoff (alcohol), Alzheimer (aging)

Scoville and Milner: H.M.

Question 7

What is substance-induced amnesia?

Answer 7

Flunitrazepam (Rohypnol)

through drugs

Question 8

What is functional amnesia?

Answer 8

not physiological

post-traumatic stress disorder

Question 9

What part of the brain was removed in H.M.?

Answer 9

he had intractable MTL epilepsy

bilateral removal of MTL

Question 10

What anterograde and retrograde memory impairments did H.M. have?

Answer 10

temporally graded retrograde amnesia: only the experiences around the surgery were affected

robust and complete anterograde amnesia: no new memories after surgery, not totally because he showed some memorization

Question 11

What are the impaired tasks associated with medial temporal lobe damage?

Answer 11

free (distracted) recall

Question 12

What are the unimpaired tasks associated with medial temporal lobe damage?

Answer 12

short-term (undistracted) recall, cued recall: parts of words as prompts, <15 minutes he was able to recall

priming: word stem completion, partial pictures

skill learning: mirror drawing

habits: motor sequence learning (like tying shoes)

classical conditioning: eye blink, puff of air associated with a tone

Question 13

What are the selective memory deficits associated with medial temporal lobe damage?

Answer 13

some temporally graded retrograde amnesia; events/knowledge recent (not remote) to surgical procedure lost, episodic and semantic, old vs. recent addresses, old vs. recent vocabulary

profound anterograde amnesia: unable to form new memories, episodic and semantic, new addresses, new vocabulary

implicit memory unimpaired: procedural tasks

Question 14

What is the permanence of “organic” amnesia?

Answer 14

chronic vs. transient

Question 15

What is the globalization of “organic” amnesia?

Answer 15

multimodal vs. unimodal

Question 16

What are the temporal aspects of “organic” amnesia?

Answer 16

short term vs. long term

anterograde vs. retrograde memories

Question 17

In what ways is “organic” amnesia dissociative?

Answer 17

specific to memory

specific to a subtype of memory

declarative (episodic and semantic) vs. procedural

knowing what vs. knowing how

Question 18

What brain systems are affected by “organic” amnesia?

Answer 18

medial temporal lobe (MTL)

diencephalon

basal forebrain

Question 19

What are the types of memory?

Answer 19

intact procedural vs. declarative

implies different brain structures involved

consciousness (cognition?) important for certain types of memory

unconscious, implicit memory exists

both behaviorism and cognitive were correct

Question 20

What are the different time courses of memory?

Answer 20

intact short-term vs. long-term memory: implies short-term processes do not need MTL (do not occur at the same brain structure), involvement of other brain structures?

anterograde vs. retrograde disturbance: implies MTL circuitry important, but only temporarily, process of consolidation involving interactions with other brain structures

Question 21

Who was patient E.P.?

Answer 21

viral encephalopathy, similar lesion to H.M.

similar deficits and sparing

Question 22

Who was Jimmie G?

Answer 22

Korsakoff’s syndrome

damage to limbic structures

very similar memory syndrome

Question 23

Who was patient R.B.?

Answer 23

global ischemia - CA1 damage (not all of the MTL cortex was affected)

episodic vs. semantic deficits

hippocampal specific damage?

Question 24

What are the two types memory can be broken into?

Answer 24

declarative (explicit): MTL, diencephalon

procedural (implicit)

Question 25

What are the two types declarative memory can be broken into?

Answer 25

semantic (facts)

episodic (memories of events)

Question 26

What are the two types procedural memory can be broken into?

Answer 26

skills and habits (striatum)

classical conditioning (amygdala, cerebellum)

priming (neocortex)