L3 memory loss

Question 1

Case of H.M.

Answer 1

• epileptic fits led to surgery
• lesions centered on hippocampus, before this focus on cerebral cortex
• complete anterograde amnesia and partial retrograde amnesia
• new skills can be learnt, but cannot be remembered
• two dissociable forms of memory - declarative and procedural

Question 2

two types of LTM

Answer 2

declarative and non-declarative

Question 3

types of amnesia

Answer 3

retrograde - forget period before injury
anterograde - inability to acquire new info and recall it

Question 4

What could H.M still do?

Answer 4

• no capacity for new learning, but not impaired in acquisition of new motor skills (mirror drawing)
• so still some form of learning going on
• also showed intact perceptual memory (Gollins picture task)

Question 5

Case of R.B.

Answer 5

• clearest evidence for specific hippocampal involvement in anterograde amnesia
• heart attack 52, ischaemic stroke –> brain damage
• anterograde but no retrograde

Question 6

how do we know that familiarity is different to memory

Answer 6

monkey model in MTL lesions
- became familiar with objects even though they couldn’t explicitly remember them being used

Question 7

what did monkey amnesia study tell us

Answer 7

• STM is preserved even with MTL lesions
• MTL is not required for STM, or procedural learning
• MTL is not required for LTM either
• it IS required for conversion of STM to LTM