Memory

Question 1

What did Tennessee Williams. think about memory?

Answer 1

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)

Question 2

What is it called when somebody cannot see an object in their mind?

Answer 2

Aphantasia

Question 3

What is the scientific term for photographic memory?

Answer 3

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

Question 4

What are memory athletes?

Answer 4

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.

Question 5

What are the two kinds of memory?

Answer 5

Long term memory
short term or working memory

Question 6

What are the two kinds of long-term memory

Answer 6

Explicit/declarative
implicit/nondeclarative

Question 7

What is explicit (declarative) memory responsible for?

Answer 7

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

Question 8

What is implicit (nondeclarative) memory responsible for?

Answer 8

-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

Question 9

Who did the rabbit experiment

Answer 9

Richard Thomson

Question 10

What was the rabbit experiment and what type of conditioning did it use?

Answer 10

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.

Question 11

What did the rabbit experiment find?

Answer 11

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

Question 12

What happens when the LIP is suppressed?

Answer 12

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.

Question 13

What is the red nucleus?

Answer 13

Located in the midbrain, the red nucleus is responsible for the coordination and sensorimotor information.

Question 14

What happens when the red nucleus is suppressed?

Answer 14

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.

Question 15

What happens to the flow of information when the red nucleus is suppressed?

Answer 15

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.

Question 16

What was the name of the famous patient who can’t form new memories?
What happened?

Answer 16

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

Question 17

Where does autobiographical memory primarily take place?

Answer 17

The right hippocampus displays stronger biographical memory than the left side

Question 18

what are Hippocampal place cells?

Answer 18

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’

Question 19

What are Entorhinal Grid Cells?

Answer 19

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.

Question 20

What are the theories of hippocampal function?

Answer 20

Declarative
Multiple-trace
Dual-process
Relational
Cognitive map

Question 21

What is episodic memory and which brain region does it utilize

Answer 21

Episodic memory is what most people think of about memory. It includes past events and experiences- everyday events

Question 22

What is confabulation of episodic memory?

Answer 22

Confabulation is remembering things differently than they were, usually in a more positive manner or one that makes you look better.
Memory bias

Question 23

What are Hebbian Synapses and who found them

Answer 23

Hebbian synapses were found by Donald O. Hebb in 1949.
Cells that fire together wire together.

Question 24

What do Hebbian Synapses do and why?

Answer 24

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.

Question 25

Step 1 of Hebbs Synapse

Answer 25

Glutamate is released from the pre-synaptic neuron across the synapse and binds w/AMPA and NMDA receptors on the post-synaptic neuron

Question 26

Step 2 of Hebbs Synapse

Answer 26

When glutamate binds to AMPA receptor on the post-synaptic neuron, it opens ligand-gated sodium channels causing glutamate and sodium to flow into the post synaptic cell

Question 27

Step 3 of Hebbs Synapse

Answer 27

The post synaptic neuron depolarizes due to the excess of sodium (Na+)and an action potential fires (when threshold hold is reached)

Question 28

Step 4 of Hebbs Synapse

Answer 28

A Magnesium plug that blocks the calcium channel is released causing the glutamate bound to NMDA to flow through the channel and into the post synaptic neuron

Question 29

Step 5 of Hebbs Synapse

Answer 29

The calcium channel of NMDA receptor is opened up and calcium now flows into the postsynaptic cell

Question 30

Step 6 of Hebbs Synapse

Answer 30

Then we get more AMPA receptors that are formed at the synapse, so when presynaptic neuron is activated again, the AMPA receptors are enhanced when glutamate binds because more glutamate can enter the postsynaptic neuron