Test 3: Learning and Memory

Question 1

What is learning?

Answer 1

A relatively permanent change in Bx produced by experience.

• Learning involves changes in the nervous system
produced by experiences
• Nervous system changes are physical
• Learning allows us to adapt our behaviors to the
environment
• Learning involves interactions among the motor,
sensory, and memory systems

Question 2

What are the different forms of learning?

Answer 2

• Perceptual
• Motor
• Stimulus response
• Implicit
• Relational

Question 3

Perceptual learning

Answer 3

Identify objects and situations

Question 4

Motor learning

Answer 4

Forming new circuits in motor system

Question 5

Stim-Response learning

Answer 5

Making a response when a particular S is present (classical cond and operant cond)

Question 6

Know relationship of perceptual and motor learning slide

Answer 6

Know relationship of perceptual and motor learning slide

Question 7

Relational Learning

Answer 7

Involves connections between individual S. Includes spatial learning, episodic learning, and observational learning.

Question 8

What area of the brain does priming take place in?

Answer 8

Neocortex

Question 9

What area of the brain does procedural (skills and habits) take place in?

Answer 9

Striatum

Question 10

What area of the brain does associative learning (classical and operant cond) take place in?

Answer 10

Emotional R-amygdala

Skeletal musculature-cerebellum

Question 11

What area of the brain does nonassociative learning (habituation and sensitization) take place in?

Answer 11

Reflex pathways

Question 12

What is habituation?

Answer 12

• Simplest form of implicit learning

- Over repeated exposures, animal ignores S

Question 13

How does habituation happen?

Answer 13

• Glutamatergic sensory neurons synapse on interneurons and motor neurons
• Reduced number of transmitter vesicles released from presynaptic terminals of sensory neurons (don’t know why)

Question 14

Sensitization

Answer 14

Firing of other neurons causes an exaggerated response. (Other neurons prevent the main neuron from ceasing to fire). Other neuron prevent K+ channels from opening; Ca2+ channels stay open; cell will continue to release NT (stay deporlarized).

Inner neuron–> sensory neuron

Question 15

Neuronal Plasticity

Answer 15

The Hebb Rule: synapses that are active at the same time that the postynaptic neuron fires are strengthened over time. This implied that repeated neural activity will produce physical changes int he nervous system

Question 16

Benefits of enriched environments in rats

Answer 16

• Thicker cortex
• More glial cells
• More AChE (perhaps more ACh)

Question 17

What does long-term potentiation (LTP) involve?

Answer 17

• Rapid stimulaion of the perforant path; rapid pulses lead to summation of postsynaptic potentials
• Activation of synapses and depolarization of the postsynaptic membrane

Question 18

How does LTP happen?

Answer 18

• NMDA receptor controls a calcium channel which is blocked by Mg2+ ions
• Mg2+ ions are ejected from the Ca channel when the membrane is depolarized
• Opening the Ca channel requires via activation of NMDA receptors require the presence of glutamate and a depolarized membrane

Question 19

LTP may result from:

Answer 19

• Increased number of new AMPA receptors during stimulation
• Alternation of synaptic structure
• -The dendritic spines form “perforated” synapses with the presynaptic terminals
• -Structural changes depend on entry of Ca ions and on the calcium kinase
• Activation of NMDA receptors that increases the activity of nitric oxide (NO)
• -NO diffuses into presynaptic terminals and may increase glutamate release from the presynaptic terminal
• -Drugs that block the synthesis of NO block the establishment of LTP in hippocampal slices

Question 20

TLDR version of “LTP may result from:”

Answer 20

• Increased glutamate release?
• NMDA/AMPA receptors
• Ca entry into dendritic spine. CaM-KII activity
• NO feedback into presynaptic cell

Question 21

Visual perceptual learning: Ventral stream vs dorsal stream

Answer 21

Dorsal: where an object is
(visual cortex–>posterior parietal cortex)
Ventral: what an object is
(visual cortex–>inferior temporal cortex)

Question 22

Which NT plays a critical role in SR?

Answer 22

Dopamine

Question 23

Two DA “systems”

Answer 23

Mesolimic DA system: ventral tegmentum to accumbens, amygdala, septum
Mesocoritcal DA system

Question 24

What are three components necessary for relational learning?

Answer 24

• Short-term memory
• Long-term memory
• Consolidation-process by which rehearsal of info in STM results in transfer to LTM

Question 25

What are the three parts of working memory (STM)?

Answer 25

- Rehearsal loop (Broca's area and auditory association cortex during rehearsal of consonants) - Visuospatial sketchpad - Executive control system-handles limited amount of info that people can juggle at one time as they engage in reasoning and decision making

Question 26

Two broad types of long term memories:

Answer 26

Non-declarative memory (implicit) -Stim-Resp and motor memories that control Bx at an unconscious level -memory for actions, skill, and operations Declarative memory (explicit) -memories that are available as facts, events, or specific S

Question 27

What are the two types of declarative memory (explicit)?

Answer 27

Episodic memory-recollection of personal experiences | Semantic memory-general knowledge

Question 28

Where is explicit memory stored?

Answer 28

In association cortices (visual info store in the visual association cortex)

Question 29

Where is semantic knowledge stored?

Answer 29

In a distributed fashion in the neocortex. -Left inferior prefrontal cortex for word knowledge -Left temporal lobe important for the retrieval of object names (These are subdivided by categories.)

Question 30

Where is episodic knowledge about time and place stored?

Answer 30

The association areas of the prefrontal cortex. Could also be medial temporal, anterior temporal, or diencephalic regions

Question 31

Amygdala's role in memories

Answer 31

Can modulate declarative memories on the basis of emotion

Question 32

Where are motor skills stored?

Answer 32

*Basal ganglia*, cerebellum, motor cortex, visual cortex, striatum, thalamus, frontal cortex

Question 33

Where is repetition priming stored?

Answer 33

Visual cortex, left inferior frontal lobe, medial temporal lobe

Question 34

Where is classical conditioning stored?

Answer 34

- Fear conditioning-Amygdala | - Skeletal musculature conditioning-cerebellum

Question 35

Hippocampal formation includes:

Answer 35

- Dentate gyrus - CA fields of the hippocampus - Subiculum * Hippocampus is crucial for the formation of new memories*

Question 36

Hippocampal function is needed for several types of mental processes

Answer 36

Relational learning, navigation, forming new memories

Question 37

Hippocampal Place Cells

Answer 37

Individual pyramidal cells within the hippocampus are sensitive to spatial location (of a rat)

Question 38

Which NT is highly important to the hippocampus's function?

Answer 38

ACh

Question 39

Amnesia

Answer 39

Failure to remember. Can be temporary or permanent

Question 40

Anterograde amnesia

Answer 40

a difficulty in forming new memories for events that occur after a brain trauma - Disorder of relational learning - difficulty in learning new material

Question 41

Retrograde amnesia

Answer 41

Inability to recall events that occurred prior to the trauma

Question 42

Severe anterograde amnesia follows what?

Answer 42

Bilateral damage to the hippocampus

Question 43

Korsakoff's Syndrome

Answer 43

- Severe form of anterograde amnesia associated with chronic alcoholicsm. - Symptoms: Severe anterograde amnesia and confabulation (person unknowlingly creates fictitious memeories. - Thiamine deficiency produces brain damage - damage to diencephalic structures, including mammillary bodies and the thalamus