Memory and Cognition

Question 1

What are the two different kinds of memory?

Answer 1

Declarative

Conscious

Question 2

What are the three duration-controlled categories that memory can be split up into?

Answer 2

Immediate memory - few 100ms to 20secs
Short term memory - 1sec to a few hours
Long-term memory - 30mins to decades

Question 3

Where is the majority of short term memory stored?

Answer 3

The cortex

Question 4

What is required for information to remain in short-term memory?

Answer 4

Maintained excitation from reverberating circuits

Question 5

What is retrograde amnesia?

Answer 5

Inability to remember immediate event up to 4 hours before the injury, but recall of event that happened a long time ago is unaffected

Question 6

What is anterograde amnesia?

Answer 6

An inability to remember events occurring shortly after regaining consciousness, presumably because the cortical function is still disturbed - occurs in severe/complex injury

Question 7

Describe ECT and outline its uses

Answer 7

ECT involves applying large amounts of electrical current to the head, under anaesthetic
Can be very successful in treating schizophrenia or depression

Question 8

What is the relationship between noradrenaline and depression?

Answer 8

It is known that disruption of noradrenergic pathways through the limbic system are involved in causing clinical depression. increased NE causes elation, while decreased NE causes depression. This can be treated with drugs that increase the effects of NE, for example by blocking the re-uptake of NE e.g. tricyclic antidepressants

Question 9

What is the relationship between exercise and depression?

Answer 9

It has now been shown to be beneficial in treating mild clinical depression and is associated with an increase in NE

Question 10

What is another approach to treating clinical depression using serotonin pathways?

Answer 10

Blocking the serotonin (5HT) re-uptake. Prozac is an SSRI - serotonin specific reuptake inhibitor

Question 11

What are the limitations of using Prozac?

Answer 11

Drugs that block NE re-uptake also block the serotonin. Both classes of drugs also take 4-6 weeks to have an anti-depressive effect

Question 12

What are some side effects of Prozac?

Answer 12

It can cause extreme violence in some patients and they can act completely out of character

Question 13

In what part of the cortex is the memory store?

Answer 13

The sensory and association areas

Question 14

What is the name of the process by which short-term memory is converted to long-term memory?

Answer 14

Consolidation

Question 15

How does consolidation occur?

Answer 15

It involves selective strengthening of synaptic connections by repeated use, similar to the method that occurs int he cerebellum during motor learning. It involves facilitation at synaptic sites, calcium, gene activation, protein synthesis and structural changes to the synapse and therefore it takes time. During the process the information is vulnerable to being wiped

Question 16

What determines whether a memory is considered significant? Does the process only occur once?

Answer 16

The frontal cortex and its association with the reward/punishment areas of the limbic system asses the significance. If the information is deemed significant once, it will be assessed again several times before the consolidation is complete

Question 17

How does information deemed significant continue to circulate so as not to be forgotten?

Answer 17

Once deemed significant, the frontal cortex ‘gates’ the PAPEZ circuit. Reverberating activity then continues around the circuit, the frontal cortex and the sensory and association areas until the consolidation process is complete

Question 18

Where are visual components of memory laid down?

Answer 18

The visual cortex

Question 19

Where are auditory components of memory laid down?

Answer 19

The auditory cortex

Question 20

What does the laying down of different components of a memory in different areas of the brain mean for recall?

Answer 20

The memory must be re-assembled. Multiple associations can evoke the recall - olfactory stimuli are particularly powerful in evoking long-term memories

Question 21

With which functional system is the auditory complex and auditory stimuli closely related to?

Answer 21

The limbic system

Question 22

What is area of the limbic system particularly important in the consolidation process?

Answer 22

The hippocampus

Question 23

What happens to the memory function of patients with bilateral hippocampal damage?

Answer 23

Immediate memory is retained as well as intact long-term memory, but they are unable to form new long-term memory. Their cerebellar memories intact, the effect is totally devastating

Question 24

What is Korsakoff’s syndrome?

Answer 24

Most commonly occurs due to chronic alcoholism, the is vitamin B1 deficiency and malnutrition which leads to maxillary body damage. The ability to consolidate memory impaired

Question 25

Describe Alzheimer’s disease

Answer 25

Severe loss of cholinergic neurons throughout the brain, including the hippocampus. It causes gross memory impairment, with progressive loss of cognitive function

Question 26

Describe deja vu phenomenon

Answer 26

A feeling of familiarity with new events or surroundings is common in the dural phase of epilepsy

Question 27

What makes up the Paper circuit?

Answer 27

Hippocampus
Anterior Thalamus
Mamillary body
Cingulate gyrus