Ep 1 Flashcards
(23 cards)
Memories from 911 aren’t probably as accurate as you’d think. This is because why?
50% of the details of that memory change in a year, even though people are convinced they’re 100% right.
Why are memories unreliable, and which parts of the brain contribute to this?
Memories are unreliable because they are reconstructions influenced by emotions, biases, and new information. Memory errors also occur due to misinformation and reconsolidation.
Key Brain regions involved are:
• Hippocampus: Encodes new memories but does not store them long-term. • Prefrontal Cortex: Reconstructs memories, which can introduce errors. • Amygdala: Adds emotional intensity to memories, sometimes distorting them. • Temporal Lobes: Store long-term memories, but retrieval can alter details. • Basal Ganglia: Involved in motor skills and habit formation, handling automatic, procedural memory.
Hippocampus with memory
SHORT TERM MEMORY: Responsible for consolidating new memories, particularly episodic (event-based) memories. It helps encode memories but does not store them permanently. Over time, memories are transferred to other parts of the brain for long-term storage.
Prefrontal Cortex with memory
SHORT TERM MEMORY: Plays a role in working memory and decision-making. It helps with recalling memories and reconstructing them, but this reconstruction process can introduce errors.
Amygdala with memory
LONG TERM MEMORY: Involved in processing emotions, it can affect how memories are encoded. Strong emotions can enhance memory retention but may also distort details.
Temporal Lobes with memory
LONG TERM MEMORY: Involved in the storage of long-term memories. However, as memories are retrieved, they can be altered by new experiences or emotions.
Basal Ganglia with memory
LONG TERM MEMORY: procedural memory—skills and habits. Automatic-repetitive actions that we perform without conscious thought. Habitual learning and motor memory/ the learning of routine behaviors through repetition.
Yanjaa Wintersoul
Grand master of memory. She competed in memory competitions, she was given 10 minutes to memorize 500 numbers ✅ her trick: converts numbers into sounds (personal code)-> pairs sounds to words and images: TBB: tabbouleh, a saggy half naked person covered in tabbouleh: reason why: ANYTHING VISCERAL THE BRAIN WILL REMEMBER BETTER! she also assigns these images to locations she already knows
Who is Henry Morison?
At 27 had brain surgery to treat Epilepsy. Got both sides of the hippocampus removed (in the medial temporal lobe). He had memories of the past: implicit & explicit-semantic is fine but the episodic was affected- making difficulty to form new memory, no future thoughts either.
Implicit memory
is memory for things you do automatically, like habits or skills, without having to think about them.
Explicit memory
Explicit memory refers to memories that require conscious effort to recall, such as facts, events, or personal experiences. It involves two main types:
• Episodic memory: Memory of specific events or experiences (e.g., your last birthday). • Semantic memory: Memory of facts and general knowledge (e.g., knowing the capital of a country).
Semantic memory
Memory of facts and general knowledge (knowing the capital of a country).
Episodic memory
Memory of specific events or experiences (your last birthday).
True or false? Explicit and implicit memory both are types of long term memory
True
What does Fusiform Gyrus do with memory? Location?
-The fusiform gyrus, especially the fusiform face area (FFA), is crucial for recognizing and remembering faces. Also helps encode/ store visual info/objects recognition
-on the underside of the brain’s temporal and occipital lobes
What part of the brain pulls all elements together when forming memory? The part that Henry’s Surgery badly damaged?
The Medial Temporal Lobe (includes Hippocampus): when you relive a moment later, the Medial Temporal Lobe helps combine those elements once again.
What is stronger in memory? Straight facts or emotion?
Emotion, amygdala unregulated the Hippocampus, allowing it to form a more detailed/stronger memory
What is the importance of location in memory?
Location has a very strong role in memory/recall. The hippocampus has cells that are specially responsive to time and place
Place cells
neurons primarily located in CA1 and CA3 regions of Hippocampus. They become active when an animal is in a specific location. Forms a cognitive map of environment, enabling navigation and spatial memory.
Time cells
Neurons found primarily in hippocampus. Responsive to specific time intervals, firing in relation to the timing of events/ sequences. Time cells help encode the temporal aspect of memories(semantic/episodic/language)—>allowing the brain to track the order of events.
Our brains pay more attention to things when they are in the form of a story. True or false?
True
What are the three strongest elements to storing memory?
Story, place, and emotion
Jennifer Thompson
Misidentified her rapist because she picked the image Ronald Cotton, contaminating the real rapist face in her memory. 11 years after Ronald went to prison, DNA proved he wasn’t the offender
