Learning, Memory, and Plasticity

Traditional flashcards with a vocabulary term and a definition

Inferior cerebellar peduncle

Connects to medulla; input from spinal cord, inferior olive, and vestibular nuclei from juxtarestiform; contains dorsospinocerebellar (LE) and cuneocerebellar (UE) pathways.

Middle cerebellar peduncle

Connects to pons; input from cortex via pons through pontocerebellar fibers.

Superior cerebellar peduncle

Connects to midbrain; outflow forms double cross using the corticospinal path; input from anterior spinocerebellar pathway.

Purkinje cells

Intermediate histological layer of the cerebellum; inhibits deep nuclei; all cells are inhibitory.

Interneurons in cerebellum

Layers include basket and stellate cells, all inhibitory.

Granule cells

Deepest histological layer of the cerebellum; project to molecular layer; apparatus is called the glomerulus: pre-synaptic mossy fiber and post-synaptic granule cell membrane.

Mossy fibers

Excitatory fibers from brainstem and spinal cord; carry somatosensory, balance, and arousal information; dorsospinocerebellar and cuneocereballar pathways turn into these.

Climbing fibers

Excitatory fibers from the inferior olive; carry movement error information; climb on Purkinje fibers.

Basal ganglia role in motor control

Active before the primary motor cortex; involved in postural sets, dampening undesirable movements, scaling movements in amplitude and force, and utilizing environmental cues.

Cerebellum role in motor control

Active before the primary motor cortex; involved in learning new motor skills and motor learning; error messages allow motor program to be adjusted.

Basal ganglia circuit - complex

Complex circuit; involves prefrontal cortex, caudate, substantia nigra, globus pallidus, ventral anterior thalamus; initiates/converts ideas to actions and goals and socially acceptable behaviors.

Basal ganglia circuit - motor

Motor circuit; involves motor areas of cortex, putamen, substantia nigra, globus pallidus, ventral lateral thalamus, motor cortex; scales movement and prepares movement.

Basal ganglia circuit - limbic

Limbic circuit; involves cingulate cortex, ventral striatum, nucleus accumbens, substantia nigra, globus pallidus, cingulate cortex; drives motivated behavior.

Tremor

Cerebellar movement disturbance with oscillation around a joint; gets worst with intentional movement.

Ataxia

Cerebellar movement disturbance causing inability to do smooth movement.

Chorea

Basal ganglia movement disturbance causing proximal flinging movement of the limb.

Athetosis

Basal ganglia movement disturbance causing distal writhing wormlike movements.

Initiation

Executive function including ability to start or begin something.

Abstraction

Executive function including considering something novel as a solution to a problem.

Cognitive Flexibility

Executive function including the ability to consider alternatives.

Habituation

Experience-dependent; response decrement to a repeated stimulus; DECREASE response.

Sensitization

Experience-dependent; more sensitive to repeated stimulus; INCREASE response.

Explicit Memory

Conscious recollection of facts and events; includes semantic and source memory.

Implicit Memory

Unconscious memory; influences our behavior without conscious recall; includes procedural, autobiographical, and episodic memory.

Immediate or Sensory Memory

Simply coding sensory experiences; registration of sensory input; lasts less than a second or two.

Short-Term Memory

Coding the memory to store it; lasts minutes; lost without verbal practice; capacity is 7 digits plus or minus 2; involves hippocampal formation and prefrontal cortex.

Long-Term Memory

More dispersed in the brain and not as affected by focal lesions; some info is encoded without trying, or declarative memory is consciously learned and studied.

Neuroplasticity

The ability of neurons to make relatively permanent changes in function, chemical profile, or structure in response to internal and external environments

Amnesia

Deficit of memory ONLY

Anterograde amnesia

Cannot remember new information

Retrograde amnesia

Cannot remember information before or around the injury

Wernicke’s-Korsakoff

Disorder of encoding! Early symptoms include ophthalmoplegia and confusion; later symptoms include memory loss and confabulation; affects mammillary bodies and dorsomedial nucleus of the thalamus.

APOE4

APOE4 BAD GENE is the biomarker that has to do with myelin and prognostic indicator for recovery following neuro injury

Dementia

Memory loss WITH cognitive decline

Amyloid cascade hypothesis causing

Fatty deposits that build up in neurons (especially on the hippocampus) that results in neuronal death causing

Neurofibrillary tangles (taupathy) are

Tau proteins become disorganized and break down, causing tangles

Lewy Body Dementia

Progressive dementia with cytoplasmic inclusions; core symptoms include hallucinations/delusions and fluctuations; may present with occipital hypometabolism and visual spatial cognitive impairments first.

Biomarker positive

Drug target for AD treatment with low CSF Abeta42, elevated CSF tau or phospho tau

Cholinesterase inhibitor

Inhibits the enzyme that degrades acetylcholine, increasing the amount present

NMDA receptor agonist

For moderate to severe AD

Ventral

Dorsal white matter pathway that attaches the meaning to sounds (takes sounds from A1 and A2 and attaches words that are stored)

semantic network located is located

Left hemisphere temporal lobe (middle and inferior temporal gyri)

Broca’s area what it programs

Anterior part: semantics. Posterior part: phonology

Exner’s Area

Motor plans are sequences in premotor area (area 6) in area called

words per minute

100 words that Distinguishes between fluent and nonfluent types of aphasia

Fluency, auditory comprehension, and repetition which categories

Aphasia categories that Differentially diagnose aphasia type

Wernicke’s Word Salad

Intact fluency, no comprehension, no repetition can cause Wernicke’s area

“Broca’s= broken speech” what is Broca’s area is major center for

No fluency, intact comprehension, no repetition

Language Content

Semantics; the meaning of language; meaning of words

Language Form

Grammar; shape or form of language

Language Use'

Manner in which we use the language; social aspect; is it appropriate to talk right now

Association Tracts

Allows for the motor and sensory (writing and speaking)

Commissural tracts

Puts R and L hemispheres together; all lobes are used for language processing

Angular gyrus

Decoding graphings (recognizing the letters you see)

Supramarginal gyrus

Puts v with v sound during Visual Comprehension

Title

Learning, Memory, and Plasticity

Description

Traditional flashcards with a vocabulary term and a definition