Brain Structures in Memory

Question 1

Where does knowledge of brain structures in learning and memory come from?

Answer 1

From studies of neuropsychological patients with brain damaged-produced amnesia.

Question 2

What was the story of H.M?

Answer 2

His seizure activity was uncontrollable and he was meant to have a bilateral medial temporal lobectomy (both cerebral hemispheres removed) but the surgeon took out different tissue.

Question 3

What was the impact of H.M’s surgery?

Answer 3

Reduced seizures but unable to lay down new memories - he had preserved motor abilities + STM but some retrograde amnesia and severe anterograde amnesia.

Question 4

What did H.M’s formal assessment show?

Answer 4

Revealed there was some capacity to lay down new memories but not new declarative ones.

Question 5

What is anterograde amnesia?

Answer 5

Loss of memory after injury event

Question 6

What is retrograde amnesia?

Answer 6

Loss of memory prior to injury

Question 7

What 3 stages occurred in the delayed non-matching-to-sample task?

Answer 7

1. Monkeys presented with object and when moved they found food
2. After delay, monkey presented with object again and additional object
3. Over series of trials monkey learns food is present under original object (declaring they remember what one is the og and what one is new)

Question 8

What was revealed in the delayed non-matching-to-sample task?

Answer 8

Researchers could compare declarative memory in other animals and lession parts of their medial temporal cortex to see if performance changed

Question 9

What assumption was created after developing the non-matching-to-sample task

Answer 9

After the development, they suggested that amnesia from temporal lobe damage is the entirely the consequence of hippocampus damage

Question 10

What is the hippocampus’ role in memory?

Answer 10

Turns STM into LTM. Plays a critical role in consolidation of new declarative memories, stores them temporarily and transfers them to cerebral cortex for storage.

Question 11

What is the cerebral cortex’s role in memory?

Answer 11

Stores long term declarative memories

Question 12

What is the amygdala’s role in memory?

Answer 12

Used to process and regulate emotional responses like fear = helps store emotional memories and non-declarative memories (e.g. conditioning fear responses)

Question 13

What is the process of of amygdala in helping memory?

Answer 13

E.g. seeing a snake will release of adrenaline which will then trigger the amygdala to tell the hippocampus to encode the emotional significance of that declarative memory

Question 14

What is the cerebellums role in memory?

Answer 14

As its used for coordinating movement, balance and voluntary movement it helps to encode and temporally store declarative and non-declarative memories related to memories of moving/balancing.