learning/memory

Question 1

Describe learning

Answer 1

• adaptive change in behavior produced by some event or experience
• involves acquisition and storage (consolidation)

Question 2

describe memory

Answer 2

• Stored record of the interpreted experience or some aspect thereof
• involves a wide array of neuronal circuits and a process for activation (recall)
• cataloguing (codification = the process whereby information is stored in some context
• cross referencing = same info is stored in various “catalogues” enabling access to the info via different routes (contexts)
• Memory trace or engram = the pathway or pattern of activity of a neuronal circuit unique to the record (memory)
• memories can exist at all levels of the neuraxis (reflexes, names, faces, skilled behaviors)

Question 3

Declarative (explicity)

Answer 3

• FACTS AND EVENTS
• Medial temporal lobe (hippocampus and surrounding structures) and Diencephalon (basal forebrain, thalamus)
• Can be brought to conscious level and described or examined

Question 4

Non-declarative (implicit, procedural)

Answer 4

• Skilled movements and habits (motor behavior)–> striatum, motor cortex, cerebellum, spinal reflex circuits
• Priming (process of completing a word/picture when only presented iwth a portion of the info (based upon prior experience) –> neocortex
• Basic associative learning (emotional responses = amygdala; Skeletal musculature = cerebellum, spinal reflex circuity)
• Non-assocaitive learning = complex reflexive pathways

Question 5

describe associative learning

Answer 5

• relationship between two or more stimuli
• Passive = simple conditioning, temporal relation between stimuli (pavlov’s dog)
• Operant
• -> stimulus is associated with a diferent reinforcement stimulus
• -> reinforcement stimulus may be positive or negative
• -> Positive reinforcement will enhance the ocurrence of behavior
• -> negative reinforcement will enhance a behavior to avoid an undersirable condition

Question 6

Non-associative (simple) learning

Answer 6

• habituation (tolerance) = diminished response following a repeated stimuli
• Sensitization = enhancement of a response by the addition of a second strong of noxious stimuli

Question 7

Non-associated (complex) learning

Answer 7

• Imprinting = bonding or behavioral attraction of a young animal to a parent (developmental process which much occur during a critical period)
• Vicarious or latent
• -> simple experience of familiarity
• -> no motivation or reinforcement (reward)
• -> imitation or observation

Question 8

describe reverberating circuits for learning

Answer 8

• SHORT TIME PERIOD
• requires continuous neuronal activity
• rapid extinction, new info replaces old

Question 9

long term potentiation

Answer 9

• defined stimulus to the afferent pathway of the hippocampus will produce a characteristic and reproducible response
• NO thought to play an important role (is long-lived, but only lasts a defined period; maintenance requires further metabolic changes)
• LPT mediates a process of encoding memories in the hippocampus and other areas
• in similar process long-term depression also seems to be a process for encoding memories (could be process for undoing LTP

Question 10

Anterograde amnesia

Answer 10

• inability to form NEW memories
• -> defect in consolidation
• -> hippocampal damage (left-verbal; right - nonverbal)
• -> affects declarative and not procedural memory
• -> may be induced by anesthetics and sedative hypnotics

Question 11

retrograde amnesia

Answer 11

• inability to RECALL previously stored memories
• -> temporal quality = older memories more resistant, newer memoreis more vulnerable
• -> defect in RECALL

Question 12

agnosia

Answer 12

= inability to recognize various stimuli/forget what they mean
–> visual, auditory or tactile

Question 13

alzheimers disease

Answer 13

• Most common form of cortical dementia in humans
• symptoms include aphasia, apraxia, agnosia and anterograde amnesia
• Characterized by neurofibrilary triangles and senile (beta-amyloid) plaques throughout the cortex and forebrain structures