Memory Flashcards
(30 cards)
What did Tennessee Williams. think about memory?
The present moment is not a memory. Only when a moment becomes the past can it be a memory. Our brains are busy trying to predict what is happening. Our idea of. the future (prospection) is based on memories (retrospection)
What is it called when somebody cannot see an object in their mind?
Aphantasia
What is the scientific term for photographic memory?
Eidetic memory
After being presented with an image, a person with eidetic memory can continue to s ee that picture in their mind but only for a short time usually 30 seconds to a minute
What are memory athletes?
People who have autobiographical memory. Only 10 people in the world have been identified as having the ability to remember specific events on specific days.
What are the two kinds of memory?
Long term memory
short term or working memory
What are the two kinds of long-term memory
Explicit/declarative
implicit/nondeclarative
What is explicit (declarative) memory responsible for?
Facts and events
Structure-medial temporal lobe and hippocampus
It is called declarative because we can declare these things, we can talk about facts or take a test to show that we know said facts
What is implicit (nondeclarative) memory responsible for?
-priming (neocortex)
-procedural skills and habits (striatum)
-associative learning: classical and operand conditioning
-emotional responses
(amygdala)
-skeletal musculature
(cerebellum)
-nonassociative learning: habituation and sensitization (reflex pathways)
Called nondeclarative because it is seen in behavior rather than communication
Who did the rabbit experiment
Richard Thomson
What was the rabbit experiment and what type of conditioning did it use?
The rabbit experiment by Richard Thomson used classical conditioning on rabbits. A puff of air would be blown into the eyes creating a motor reflex of a blink. Before the air was blown, a sound such as a beep would play. Eventually, the rabbits would blink when they heard the sound even if no air was blown.
What did the rabbit experiment find?
Thomas found that the memory traces for the learned responses occurred in a localized spot in the cerebellum called the lateral interpositus nucleus (LIP).
By the 3rd trial, healthy rabbits would blink at the tone of the beep
What happens when the LIP is suppressed?
An animal will be unable to learn a conditioned response. In the rabbit experiment, healthy rabbits were conditioned by the 3rd trial. If the LIP is suppressed this will not happen. However, when you restore the LIP the rabbits would learn the condition by the 3rd or 4th trial.
What is the red nucleus?
Located in the midbrain, the red nucleus is responsible for the coordination and sensorimotor information.
What happens when the red nucleus is suppressed?
When the red nucleus is suppressed, an animal cannot display a learned behavior because its coordination has been turned off. In the rabbit condition, you would see no signs of the conditioned response. However, when the red nucleus is returned, the rabbit immediately starts displaying the learned response.
What happens to the flow of information when the red nucleus is suppressed?
The interpositive nucleus (where learning and retention take place) sends information directly to the red nucleus which then sends information to the cranial motor nuclei. If the red nucleus us suppressed the flow of information stops there.
What was the name of the famous patient who can’t form new memories?
What happened?
Henry Molaison (H.M.)
He had epileptic seizures so the doctor cut out the medial temporal lobe and the hippocampus where the seizures were originating from. As a result, H.M. could not form new declarative (explicit) memories. He could however learn nondeclarative (implicit) memories
Where does autobiographical memory primarily take place?
The right hippocampus displays stronger biographical memory than the left side
what are Hippocampal place cells?
Place cells are neurons in the hippocampus that fire when an animal visits specific regions of its environment, called place fields, and are thought to provide the foundation for an internal representation of space, or ‘cognitive map’
What are Entorhinal Grid Cells?
A grid cell is a type of neuron within the entorhinal cortex that fires at regular intervals as an animal navigates an open area, allowing it to understand its position in space by storing and integrating information about location, distance, and direction.
What are the theories of hippocampal function?
Declarative
Multiple-trace
Dual-process
Relational
Cognitive map
What is episodic memory and which brain region does it utilize
Episodic memory is what most people think of about memory. It includes past events and experiences- everyday events
What is confabulation of episodic memory?
Confabulation is remembering things differently than they were, usually in a more positive manner or one that makes you look better.
Memory bias
What are Hebbian Synapses and who found them
Hebbian synapses were found by Donald O. Hebb in 1949.
Cells that fire together wire together.
What do Hebbian Synapses do and why?
When neurons are close together and fire at the same time repeatedly, have stronger connections in an experience. When we recall a memory, these neurons fire again because they are associated with that experience. It strengthens the efficiency of memory recollection.
