Memory Disorders

Question 1

Herman Ebbinghaus

Answer 1

Developed first methods for assessing learning and memory of a controlled experience.

Question 2

What are the two reasons for which memories can be disrupted? What do each of these result in?

Answer 2

1. Storage failure: permanent amnesia.

2. Retrieval failure: temporary amnesia.

Question 3

What are the 7 sins of memory?

Answer 3

1. Transience: weakening of memory over time.
2. Absent-mindedness: the deficient interface between attention and memory.
3. Blocking: failed search for info.
4. Misattribution: assigning memory to an incorrect source.
5. Suggestibility: memories can be implanted.
6. Bias: personal beliefs influence memories.
7. Persistence: repeated recall of specific memories.

Question 4

Psychogenic amnesia

Answer 4

Amnesia with no physical cause.

Question 5

Retrograde amnesia

Answer 5

Loss of memories occurring prior to the trauma.

Question 6

Anterograde amnesia

Answer 6

Inability to create new memories

Question 7

What are 6 physical causes of amnesia?

Answer 7

Stroke, viral infection, tumours, closed head injury, thiamine deficiency, age-related neurodegeneration.

Question 8

Organic amnesia

Answer 8

Resulting from injury to the brain

Question 9

Ribot’s law

Answer 9

Recent memories are lost first, older ones are the most resilient

Question 10

What two tests are used to assess retrograde amnesia?

Answer 10

Boston Remote Memory Test, “Dead or Alive” test.

Question 11

Boston Remote Memory Test (BRMT)

Answer 11

Assess distant memories based on well-known historical events.

Question 12

Dead or Alive test

Answer 12

Tests recognition of whether a famous person is still iving.

Question 13

What test is used to assess Anterograde amnesia?

Answer 13

Weschler’s memory scale-revised

Question 14

Weschler’s Memory Scale-Revised (WMS-R)

Answer 14

Range of tests used to assess verbal and non-verbal memory.

Question 15

Reconsolidation

Answer 15

Updating of LTM by temporary return of LTM to an active, modifiable (STM) state.

Question 16

Korsakoff Syndrome

Answer 16

Results from a deficiency in thiamine (vitamin B1). Causes anterograde amnesia.

Question 17

Mammillary bodies

Answer 17

Connected to the hippocampus; damage elicits anterograde amnesia.

Question 18

Mediodorsal thalamic nucleus

Answer 18

Connect prefrontal cortex to thalamus; damage elicits amnesia for autobiographical information.

Question 19

What is damaged in Korsakoff syndrome?

Answer 19

Mammillary bodies and mediodorsal thalamic nucleus.

Question 20

What are the six characteristics of anterograde amnesia?

Answer 20

1. Intact short-term and semantic memory.
2. General intellect is intact.
3. Intact procedural and perceptual learning.
4. Severe anterograde amnesia.
5. Variable degree of retrograde amnesia.
6. Selective failure of episodic memory.

Question 21

What are the 2 explanations for amnesiac syndrome?

Answer 21

1. Failure to store contextual information.

2. Deficit in memory consolidation.

Question 22

4 symptoms of frontal lobe damage

Answer 22

1. Confabulation.
2. Source amnesia.
3. Inability to specify memories.
4. Impaired STM.

Question 23

Confabulation

Answer 23

Production of false memories.

Question 24

Source amnesia

Answer 24

Forget knowledge source.

Question 25

Declarative memory

Answer 25

Facts, data, events.

Question 26

Procedural memory

Answer 26

How to do things

Question 27

Episodic memory

Answer 27

Personal experiences

Question 28

Semantic memory

Answer 28

General factual information.

Question 29

What happened to patient H.M?

Answer 29

Removal of the temporal lobes to treat severe epileptic seizures, resulted in severe anterograde amnesia.

Question 30

What is the MTH system, how is it related to long-term memory?

Answer 30

The medial temporal hippocampal system interacts to initiate new memory trace between neurons in the neocortex to create new memories. Long-term memories are independent of the MTH.

Question 31

Pattern completion

Answer 31

Neurons in the neocortex fire in a set pattern that then elicits the response of other neurons to "complete" a memory recall.

Question 32

What are the three types of nootropics?

Answer 32

AMPAkines, PDE Inhibitors, nAChRs activators.

Question 33

AMPAkines

Answer 33

Enhance flow of ions through AMPA receptor channels.

Question 34

PDE Inhibitors

Answer 34

Increase cAMP levels.

Question 35

nAChRs activators

Answer 35

Decrease breakdown of ACh, increase levels of ACh.