Memory I

Question 1

What is forgotten amnesia?

Question 2

What are the different forms of amnesia?

Answer 2

1. Anterograde Amnesia
   - amnesia into the future; can’t acquire memories anymore
2. Retrograde Amnesia
   - amnesia into the past; can’t remember past events in our life

Question 3

Are memories about personal events processed in the same way as procedural memories for how to perform a task?

Question 4

What brain systems have proved to be critical for the formation of long-term memory?

Answer 4

• Hippocampus
• Parahippocampal, entorthinal, and perirhinal cortex
• Amygdala
• Fornix
• Mammillary bodies
• Medial temporal lobe (MTL)
• Anterior thalamic nuclei

Question 5

Where are memories stored in the brain?

Answer 5

• Perirhinal cortex (‘what’)
• Parahippocampal cortex (‘where’)
• Hippocampus
• Mamillary bodies

Question 6

By what cellular and molecular mechanisms are memories stored in the brain?

Question 7

What is memory?

Answer 7

The result of learning (acquired and stored information)

Question 8

What does memory involve?

Question 9

Models of short-term/working memory

Answer 9

1. Hierarchical Modal Model
   - Atkinson & Shiffrin
   - Attention and rehearsal required to establish long term memory
   - Serial processing steps (4 stages)
2. 3 Component Working Memory Model
   - Baddeley and Hitch
   - Parallel processing steps (3 stages)
   - A central executive handles the information and holds it in working memory
   - Phonological loop (verbal memory)
   - Visuospatial Sketchpad (spatial memory)

Question 10

Brain areas involved in short-term memory

Question 11

Types of long-term memory

Answer 11

1. Declarative Memory (explicit memory)
   - Events (episodic memory)
   - Facts (semantic memory)
2. Nondeclarative Memory (implicit memory)
   - Procedural Memory
   - Perceptual Representation System
   - Classical Conditioning
   - Non-associative Learning

Question 12

The role of the hippocampus (and associated structures) in episodic memory formation

Answer 12

• H.M.’s case
• Removal of hippocampus (though still some in posterior region intact) was because he suffered from very severe epilepsy
• Suffered from anterograde and retrograde episodic memory loss
• Hippocampal damage doesn’t allow you to have episodic memory anymore

Question 13

Medial Temporal Lobe (MTL)

Question 14

Semantic Memory Formation

Question 15

MTL and Procedural Memories

Answer 15

• LED Flashing
• Basal ganglia most relevant to procedural learning

Question 16

The Role of MTL in Memory Retrieval

Answer 16

• Studied by measuring brain activation during retrieval; A behavioural test that separates different forms of memory (familiarity, recollection and source recollection)

Question 17

Source memory is a form of episodic memory. Why?

(Hint: Recollect what episodic memory is (the 3 Ws)

Answer 17

• Source memory is a form of episodic memory
• We need to recollect on the what, where, when of episodic memory and all those relate to the source of the memory
• The source is like the context with which a stimuli was presented
  *Ex. in the memory retrieval task, the color of a word’s box or what was prompted of it would be indicators of its source/context

Question 18

What are the main processing stages involved in learning and memory?

Answer 18

1. Encoding: acquisition and consolidation
2. Storage: representation of the acquired and consolidated information
3. Retrieval: utilization of stored information to perform specific acts (use memorised items to recreate events of the past or perform motor acts)

Question 19

What is sensory memory?

Answer 19

• Automatic, short-lived (seconds), large storage capacity
• The brief ‘image’ that you have of a stimuli after its presentation
• Contains lots of detail (high capacity) but only lasts a few seconds
• We are usually not consciously aware of it
• Main types of sensory memory: iconic (visual) and echoic (memory)

Question 20

Differentiate between short-term and working memory

Answer 20

• Short-term: short-lived (seconds to minutes), limited capacity, passive form of information
• Working: memory content is more active (manipulated for active use)

Question 21

Does a double dissociation between STM and LTM systems exist?

Answer 21

• Comparison between patient E.E. and H.M. (two separate lesions, two separate deficits, compared to a control person)
• E.E. had a lesion in the left angular gyrus, H.M. had a lesion in the hippocampus and the medial temporal lobe
• E.E. had LTM deficits; H.M. had STM deficits

Question 22

Which brain structures contribute to LTM (and to which types of LTM)?

Question 23

Examples of different forms of LTM … (episodic, familiarity, source memory, recency memory, etc..)

Question 24

Is the hippocampus involved in recollection (Evidence?)

Question 25

Priming

Answer 25

- A change in the response to a stimulus, or in the ability to identify a stimulus, following prior exposure to that stimulus - Word fragment task