Chapter 12: Learning, Memory, and Intelligence Flashcards
Thompson found a localized engram, whereas Lashley did not. What key differences in procedures or assumptions were probably responsible for their different results?
Thompson studied a different, simpler type of learning. Also, he looked in the cerebellum instead of the cerebral cortex.
What evidence indicates that the red nucleus is necessary for performance of a conditioned response but not for learning the response?
If the red nucleus is inactivated during training, the animal makes no conditioned responses during the training, so the red nucleus is necessary for the response. However, as soon as the red nucleus recovers, the animal can show conditioned responses at once, without any further training, so learning occurred while the red nucleus was inactivated.
Why should we conclude that consolidation depends on more than just holding a short-term memory long enough for protein synthesis?
People can store some memories for hours or days without forming a permanent memory, whereas they form emotionally important memories quickly.
What mechanism causes flashbulb memories?
Emotionally exciting memories stimulate the locus coeruleus, which increases norepinephrine throughout the cortex and dopamine to the hippocampus. Emotional excitement also increases epinephrine and cortisol, which activate the amygdala and hippocampus.
How does the cortex store a working memory during a delay?
Occasional bursts of gamma oscillations (45 to 100 Hz) occur in cells that responded to a stimulus, but the bursts alternate among cells instead of persisting throughout the delay in any one cell.
On what kind of question is someone with Korsakoff’s syndrome most likely to confabulate?
Patients with Korsakoff’s syndrome most often confabulate on questions about themselves. Many confabulations are statements that were true at one time.
Why did researchers look for a gene on chromosome 21 as a probable cause of early-onset Alzheimer’s disease?
People with Down syndrome, caused by an extra copy of chromosome 21, almost always develop Alzheimer’s disease in middle age.
Dr. Lahey proposed that the cortex works as a whole, and that the more cortex you have, the better. He called this _____.
a. cortical importance
b. mass action
c. equipotentiality
d. the law of engram
mass action
Correct. Lahey proposed the idea of mass action—that the cortex works as one unit and the more cortex the better. However, he based his work on a faulty assumption—that the cerebral cortex was the best and only place to search for an engram. Investigators who discarded his assumptions reached different conclusions.
Most scientists have replaced the idea of short-term memory with _____.
a. periodic memory
b. episodic memory
c. amnesia
d. working memory
working memory
Correct. Baddeley and Hitch (1994) introduced the term working memory to refer to the way we store information while we are working with it. A common test of working memory is the delayed response task.
Gena has been diagnosed with Korsakoff’s syndrome. As a result of being deficient in ______, she has been experiencing memory loss.
a. vitamin B2
b. vitamin C
c. vitamin B1
d. vitamin D
vitamin B1
Correct. Gena’s damage from Korsakoff’s syndrome is brain damage caused by prolonged thiamine deficiency (vitamin B1). Prolonged thiamine deficiency leads to a loss or shrinkage of neurons throughout the brain, especially in the dorsomedial thalamus, the main source of input to the prefrontal cortex. The symptoms of Korsakoff’s syndrome are similar to those of people with damage to the prefrontal cortex, including apathy, confusion, and memory loss.
Which types of memory were most impaired in H. M. and people with similar amnesia?
H. M. had severe anterograde amnesia (difficulty forming new long-term memories) and a severe loss of episodic memories.
Which types of memory were least impaired in H. M. and people with similar amnesia?
H. M. had nearly intact working memory, implicit memory, and procedural memory.
According to the context hypothesis, why does hippocampal damage impair recent memories more than distant memories?
Recent memories include details of context, and the hippocampus is essential for memory of context. Most old memories include only the gist of the event, and the hippocampus is less important for memories of that type.
In addition to an animal’s location, what else do many place cells monitor?
Some also respond to time or the direction the animal is heading
What is the evidence that rats can imagine the future?
When a rat pauses at a choice point in a maze, place cells respond in sequence as if the animal were traveling down one arm or another of the maze
How do grid cells at ventral levels of the entorhinal cortex differ from those at dorsal levels?
Moving dorsal to ventral, the grid cells respond to larger areas.
Which type of memory would be easier to describe in words, memory based on the hippocampus or the striatum?
Hippocampal-based memory, being explicit, is generally easier to describe in words. The habits based on the striatum are sometimes harder to describe.
During hospitalization for a severe concussion, Mose got nervous because he didn’t remember anything from the day he got hurt. He is suffering from _____.
a. Korsakoff’s syndrome
b. Broca’s syndrome
c. retrograde amnesia
d. anterograde amnesia
retrograde amnesia
Correct. Mose appears to have retrograde amnesia, which is the loss of memory for events that occurred before the brain damage.
Dr. Ankney is using a radial arm maze to demonstrate the importance of the ______ for _____ memory.
a. hippocampus; spatial
b. hippocampus; semantic
c. cerebellum; short-term
d. cerebellum; spatial
hippocampus; spatial
Correct. Several types of evidence demonstrate the importance of the hippocampus and nearby areas for spatial memory. Dr. Ankney finds that rats with damage to the hippocampus can learn to avoid the never-correct arms, but even after much training they often enter a correct arm twice. That is, they forget which arms they have already tried.
Dr. Tempel is working with a patient who previously knew what a zebra was. Now, the patient calls a picture of a zebra a “horse” and keeps asking why someone painted the horse a strange pattern. Dr. Tempel’s patient likely has _____.
a. semantic dementia
b. short-term memory loss
c. Korsakoff’s syndrome
d. Alzheimer’s disease
semantic dementia
Correct. People with damage in the anterior temporal cortex suffer semantic dementia, a loss of semantic memory. Dr. Tempel’s patient seems to have lost the memory of a zebra entirely.
How can a Hebbian synapse account for the basic phenomena of classical conditioning?
In a Hebbian synapse, pairing the activity of a weaker (CS) axon with a stronger (UCS) axon produces an action potential, and in the process strengthens the response of the cell to the CS axon. On later trials, it will produce a bigger depolarization of the postsynaptic cell, which we can regard as a conditioned response.
When serotonin blocks potassium channels on the presynaptic terminal, what is the effect on transmission?
Blocking potassium channels prolongs the action potential and therefore prolongs the release of neurotransmitters, producing an increased response.
Before LTP: In the normal state, what is the effect of glutamate at the AMPA receptors? At the NMDA receptors?
Before LTP, glutamate stimulates AMPA receptors but usually has little effect at the NMDA receptors because magnesium blocks them.
During the formation of LTP, when a burst of intense stimulation releases much more glutamate than usual at two or more incoming axons, what is the effect of the glutamate at the AMPA receptors? At the NMDA receptors?
During the formation of LTP, the massive glutamate input strongly stimulates the AMPA receptors, thus depolarizing the dendrite. This depolarization enables glutamate to excite the NMDA receptors also
