L9 Procedural memory Flashcards
(19 cards)
what comes under procedural learning
Skill learning - e.g., riding a bike (motor)
Emotional/conditioning - Pavlov’s dogs
Priming don’t matter bruh
two major types of of procedural
- Acquisition of habits and skills (writing, playing the piano)
- Sensory-to-motor adaptations involving the adaptation of reflexes e.g., changing the force required to compensate for a given load, new motor responses to changes in sensory contingencies
which brain circuits do they types of procedural use?
they rely on different but partially overlapping brain circuits
- primary motor cortex
- premotor cortex
what structures are integral to procedural learning?
striatum (caudate and putamen) and cerebellum
striatal habit system
cortex –> striatum/cerebellum –> thalamus –> back to cortex
hippocampal lesions make no difference (as declarative)
striatal lesions effect visual discrimination
does habit learning
striatal habit system 2
striatal lesions stop rat from performing task which requires it to turn right always
what is the striatal subsystem
- habit learning
- striatum has access to all info from entire cortex
- also a v small projection to brainstem, NONE to spinal cord
what does anatomy of striatum suggest?
- connections to premotor and motor cortices suggest role in higher motor output, indirectly
- connections with other regions involved in motivation and emotion and planning suggest involvement in goal-oriented behaviour
cerebellar subsystem
- not as big an input as striatal
- more interested in ‘what are we trying to do’, ‘is it working?’
- feedback to thalamus
- Spinal cord input
what is role of cerebellum in procedural memory?
- circuit involved in reflex adaptations (Pavlov)
- timing is curcial - role of cerebellum may be to sequence and co-ordinate adaptation of skeleteal muscle activation
- not entirely independent of MTL episodic pathway (striatal is)
- circuitry includes brainstem (SC) and motor ouput
what is the striatum’s role in procedural learning?
habit learning, particularly tasks involving acquisition of response sequences to specific stimuli
four aspects of emotion
feelings, actions, physiological arousal, motivational programs
MacLean’s triune brain theory
brain evolved in 3 stages ‘layers’
- reptilian brain - brainstem
- paleomammalian brain - limbic system
- neomammalian brain - neocortex
what is the limbic system?
- Primitive CNS system involved in emotion, stress, moods, addiction
- Centered on hypoT - Papez circuit, later expanded to include other structures
what are the two landmark studies regarding hypothalamus and emotion?
Cannon & Britton - removed cortex in dogs and cats, produced an aggressive reaction to normal handling (sham rage)
Bard - showed subcortical sites (posterior hypoT) important in sham rage
cortex controls (inhibits) expression of emotional responses
what did Papez do?
suggested circuit for emotional expression based upon structures he noted to be damaged in his studies of neurological patients
cingulate gyrus assumed to be centre for production of conscious emotional feelings
what did maclean’s limbic theory propose?
described a visceral brian compromising
- papez’s emotional circuit
- Broca’s limbic lobe
- septum and portions of basal ganglia
he added amygdala, ventromedial PFC and OFC to create his limbic system
amygdala and hippocampal lesion effects on fear conditioning?
amygdala lesion disrupts pavlovian fear conditioning
hippocampal lesion disrupts only contextual fear conditioning
amygdala and emotion
- involved in emotional memory, particularly fearful stimuli
- required for acquisition of Pavlovian fear conditioning
- change in responsiveness of amygdala neurons following conditioning parallels LTP in same pathway
