Learning, Memory, and Plasticity

Question 1

Clive wearing - What were effects demonstrated by damage to his FRONTAL LOBE?

Answer 1

Repeating himself

Question 1

What did Clive wearing suffer from/how did it effect him?

Answer 1

Viral Encephalitis

Effects were extensive

Mostly affected medial temporal lobe bilaterally, hippocampus

Frontal lobe, amygdala

Caused him to develop temporal lobe amnesia

-

Question 2

Clive wearing - What were effects demonstrated by damage to his AMYGDALA?

Answer 2

Trouble regulating emotions

Highly emotional behaviour

Question 3

Who was H.M?

Answer 3

Epileptic who had his temporal lobes removed

Seizures were removed, so was his LTM

Mild retrograde amnesia, severe anterograde amnesia

Question 4

Retrograde amnesia

Answer 4

Backward-acting

Unable to remember the past

Question 5

Anterograde amnesia

Answer 5

Forward-acting

Unable to form new memories

Question 6

What was learned from both Clive Wearing and H.M.?

Answer 6

• Medial temporal lobe is important for memory
• Although both show significant memory deficits, both show certain memorial capabilities e.g. Clive could still play music and knew who is wife was/H.M. could still tie his shoelaces

Question 7

What could both Clive Wearing and H.M do surprisingly?

Answer 7

Both could learn new skills

Not remember being taught, would remember the skill

Question 8

Retrieval

Answer 8

Bringing information from LTM back to STM to perceive/think about it actively

Question 9

Encoding

Answer 9

Putting things from STM into LTM storage

Question 10

Rehearsal

Answer 10

A control process

To keep information in the STM/active working memory

Question 11

Neuroanatomy of object-recognition memory

Answer 11

• Early animal models of amnesia involved implicit memory and HIPPOCAMPUS
• Monkeys with bilat. medial temporal lobectomies show LTM deficits in explicit memory
• Performance normal for active 150-20 seconds, then lose the information

Question 12

Episodic memories

Answer 12

Involves conscious recollection of previous experiences

(together with their context in terms of time, place, and associated emotions)

Question 13

Semantic Memories

Answer 13

Involves general world knowledge that we accumulate

e.g. facts, figures, numbers etc.

Question 14

What type of memory (beyond anterograde etc.) did H.M and Clive lose?

Answer 14

Both lost most of their explicit memory, kept much of their implicit memory

Question 15

Medial Temporal Lobe Amnesia

Answer 15

• Not all pts. with this form are unable to form new explicit LTM
• Semantic memory may function normally while episodic memory does not
• May have difficulty imagining future events

Question 16

Important Regions for Explicit Memory Function – Hippocampus

Answer 16

Heavily in explicit, not much in implicit

Encoding (especially explicit)

Spatial location

Question 17

Important Regions for Explicit Memory Function – Neocortex

Answer 17

Transfer from STM to LTTM

Planning

Question 18

Important Regions for Explicit Memory Function – Amygdala

Answer 18

Emotional memories

strengthening memory formation

Activate memory formation in hippocampus

Question 19

Important Regions for Explicit Memory Function – Prefrontal Cortex

Answer 19

Retrieval of information from LTM

Question 20

Rhinal Cortex

Answer 20

Play an important role in object recognition

Question 21

Hippocampus and Memory for spatial location

Answer 21

Rhinal cells

Hippocampectomy produces deficits on morris and radial arm maze

Place cells

Once taught, more quickly through the maze, when remove, each trial is a new trial

Question 22

Place cell

Answer 22

In hippocampus

Respond to when a subject is in a particular place and to other cues

Question 23

Procedural Memories

Answer 23

Memory for how to do things

Motor actions, balance etc.

Question 24

Priming

Answer 24

Facilitation of inhibition of a process after repeated exposure to a stimulus

Question 25

Conditioning

Answer 25

Developing a positive or negative associations with a stimulus being paired with a positive/negative outcome

Question 26

H.M --> Digit-Span task

Answer 26

Can repeat digits provided the time between learning and recall is within duration of short-term memory

Question 27

H.M --> Block-Tapping memory-span test

Answer 27

Demonstrates that HM's amnesia was global AKA Not limited to one sensory modality

Question 28

H.M. --> Intact procedural memory

Answer 28

Improves with practice on sensorimotor tasks (mirror-drawing, rotary pursuit) and on non-sensorimotor tasks (Incomplete pictures) Without recalling previous practice sessions

Question 29

H.M. ---> Conditioning

Answer 29

Readily learns responses through classical conditioning no memory of conditioning trials

Question 30

Where are memories stored?

Answer 30

Across multiple systems

Question 31

Memory storage - Hippocampus

Answer 31

Spatial location encoding of explicit mem.

Question 32

Memory storage - Perirhinal cortex

Answer 32

Object recognition

Question 33

Memory storage - Cerebellum

Answer 33

Sensorimotor skills

Question 34

Memory storage - Stratium

Answer 34

Habit formation

Question 35

Prefrontal cortex - memory

Answer 35

- Temporal order of events and working memory - Tasks involving series of responses - Different parts of PFC mediate different types of working memory according to fMRI

Question 36

Basal forebrain and memory

Answer 36

- Involved in acetylcholine release - facilitating plasticity at neuronal level - Appears role in alzheimers disease

Question 37

Which area is largely involved in STM or working memory?

Answer 37

Prefrontal regions

Question 38

Hebbian Learning

Answer 38

Changes in synaptic efficiency are the basis of LTM

Question 39

Long-Term Potentiation

Answer 39

- Synapses are made stronger by repeated stimulation - Increases AP/firing rate over time, each time the same stimulus is introduced

Question 40

Explain long-term-potentiation: Depolarization, glutamate binders, and calcium ions

Answer 40

○ If the postsynaptic neuron is not already depolarized, when glutamate binds to its receptors, the receptors only permit few calcium ions to come in. ○ If the binding of glutamate to NDA receptors happens, at any time other than when the postsynaptic neuron is already depolarized, then we do no get any increase in action potentials (doesn't mean we don’t get them, just means we do not get more)

Question 41

LTP - Sequence of events

Answer 41

- NDMA receptors respond if glutamate bonds and neuron is partially depolarised - CA2+ open do not open until both conditions are met - See synaptic changes (amount of NT released and bound) - Leads to increase in speed and excitation of AP

Question 42

Clive Wearing and Long-term potentiation

Answer 42

Clive does NOT have LTP Does not have increased action potentials based on explicit learning

Question 43

LTP can last for...

Answer 43

Many weeks

Question 44

LTP only occurs if presynaptic firing is followed by...

Answer 44

Postsynaptic firing

Question 45

Hebb's Postulate for learning

Answer 45

- Co-occurrence of firings in pre-and postsynaptic neurons necessary for learning and memory - Pairing together of neuronal information leading to strengthening of neural path

Question 46

Opposite of long-term potentiation

Answer 46

Long-term depression

Question 47

What brain structure is largely known for its role in memory consolidation?

Answer 47

Hippocampus

Question 48

What is another term used when referring to long-term potentiation?

Answer 48

Synaptic consolidation - As it involves the reorganization of synaptic structures

Question 49

Systems Consolidation

Answer 49

The gradual reorganization of neural circuits

Question 50

Three important regions for Explicit Memory Formation

Answer 50

Neocortex Hippocampus Amygdala

Question 51

Hippocampus holds more ________ memory, the cortex holds more __________ memory

Answer 51

Hippocampus - recent memory Cortex - Remote memory

Question 52

Concussions and memory

Answer 52

Concussions disrupt consolidation and storage of recent memories

Question 53

Which stage of sleep does consolidation occur?

Answer 53

slow-wave sleep

Question 54

Age and sleep

Answer 54

As we age, slow-wave sleep becomes increasingly interuppted

Question 55

Reconsolidation

Answer 55

- Each time a memory is retrieved from LTM, is temporarily held in STM - Memory in SM is susceptible to post-traumatic amnesia until reconsolidated

Question 56

Anisomycin

Answer 56

Protein synthesis inhibitor Prevents reconsolidation of fear in rats if applied directly to amygdala