Procedural and Working Memory

Question 1

Definition of Procedural memory

Answer 1

motor memory for skills and behavioural habits

Question 2

Striatum (location, parts, connections)

Answer 2

subcortical structure that is part of the basal ganglia
2 subregions: caudate nucleus and putamen
receives direct input from the motor cortex
receives input from the substantia nigra

Question 3

Scientific evidence for the involvement of the striatum

Answer 3

• lesions impair rats’ performance on procedural memory tasks, e.g. praxic navigation (this performance is not impaired by lesions to other memory areas like the hippocampus)
• lesions do not affect performance on declarative memory tasks, e.g. locale navigation (this performance is impaired by lesions to the hippocampus)

Question 4

Scientific evidence for the function of the caudate nucleus

Answer 4

• relation between two constant cues with different positions (same colour related to escape platform) is not possible when the caudate nucleus is lesioned
• relation between changing cues but the same positions (changing colours but platform is always at same location) is possible when the caudate nucleus is lesioned

Question 5

Recording studies of the striatum

Answer 5

different types of cells within the striatum fire as a response habit is performed, e.g. turning a specific direction when a tone is played

Question 6

Definition of Working memory

Answer 6

retention of information that is necessary for guiding currently ongoing behaviour

Question 7

Examples for the use of working memory

Answer 7

• playing chess

- 8-arm radium maze: the rat needs to remember which arm it already visited and took food from

Question 8

Evidence for the involvement of the prefrontal cortex in working memory

Answer 8

• prefrontal cortex has connections to sensory areas, the thalamus and the medial temporal lobes
• delayed-response task is impaired by prefrontal lesions (high prefrontal activity during delay period recorded)
• high prefrontal activity recorded in humans during the encoding phase of a virtual space task similar to the radium maze
• people with prefrontal damage have difficulties in performing the trail making task (drawing a connecting line between numbers/letters)