Henry Molaison: epilepsy (mid-brain, medial-temporal lobe)
o Take out parts of the brain where the epilepsy come from
o Lost memory, both hippocampus removed
o Even though he didn’t know much about what was going on, he was a great use for science
o Pathway of encoding to long-term is broken
Working memory
- operates over a few seconds
- temporary storage
- manipulates info
- focuses on attention
What area(s) is procedural memory stored?
in another place than hippocampus
• The error get better over time
• Fysical skills
• Knowing how
> Henry Molaison writing in the mirror
Declarative memory (2)
knowing what
Declarative memories
1. Semantic memories
> General knowledge
- Episodic memories:
> Personal recollections
The role of the hippocampus in memory
- Not the storage but more like a pathway
- Memory is everywhere
- Hippocampus retrieves and encodes memories
LTP and LTD
LTP: Long-Term Potential
o What fires together wires together
o LTP in the Hippocampus: key formation for memory
LTD: Long-Term Depression
o ‘An enduring decrease in synaptic efficiency’
o E.g. how neurons in some regions of the brain can decrease their output as a stimulus is repeatedly presented, underlying our ability to recognize familiarity
Memory Consolidation
- When you learn something your hippocampus is very active
- Hippocampal involvement decreases
- Over a certain amount of time the hippocampus is not necessary anymore to retrieve a certain memory
- The memory is stored somewhere else
- But also needs the hippocampus to retrieve these memories
→ sleep is important to store the memory somewhere else and to fulfil the system consolidation
Episodic vs semantic differences
- Semantic memories are already consolidated (they don’t need the connections with the hippocampus anymore)
- Episodic memories are the memories that are very hippocampus dependent, snapshots
Explain the different meanings of the word “learning” in neuroscience and education
Learning Neuroscience = human learning, as in the formation of memory, occurs by changes in the patterns of connectivity between neurons – or ‘synaptic plasticity’.
- LTP
- LTD
Learning Education
- experiences and prior understanding.
- opportunities for meaningful and authentic exploration
- engaging activities
- interactive group work
- student ownership of the learning process.
Name and explain three memory strategies that seem to work best in education
- Prior Knowledge: Taking students prior knowledge into account, knowing about the way it effects memory.
Principle 1: Prior knowledge provides a structure into which the new information can be integrated
> selection, abstraction, interpretation, integration, and reconstruction
Principle 2 : Knowledge needs to be activated appropriately to benefit memory processing of new information.
- Retrieval Practice
- Distributed Practive
Describe an approach to investigate the neural mechanisms of memory, in such a way that the experimental context is more similar to the school context
With a portable MRI so we can follow the children in classes where they actually have all the influences of the class
Proleveration
overgrowth of neurons
Synaptogenis
formation of many connection (synapsis) between the neurons
How can we use neuro imaging studies on brain development to improve schooling
DTI: connectivity of the brain shows that the less mature the better they will read in the future.
fMRI: study brain-task-behaviour relations
Sensory substitution – What does this research tell us about plasticity? How could we use such devices in education?
• For blind children, it really broadens their horizons
o Seeing with music and tones
o Braille
What can be potential solutions for a better mutual understanding about learning?
They can help each other but they have to communicate because they have a difference in their viewpoint of learning:
• Research that reflects education in the classroom
Schema: general cognitive structure that links multiple representations of a particular phenomena.
E.g. dog: first you see a certain dog and then you construct this to all kind of dogs.
Disadvantage: stereotyping, categorical or schema-like errors
Classroom enhance learning in schema’s: “remember what you learned yesterday and help to connect that to what you learn today how it connects” – until 8 to 12
