Neural Processes of Cognitive Control – Medial Temporal Lobe and Memory

Vocabulary flashcards summarizing major terms and concepts from the lecture notes on medial temporal lobe anatomy, memory systems, consolidation mechanisms, experimental paradigms, and theoretical models.

Medial Temporal Lobe (MTL)

Brain region that combines incoming sensory input with past experience to form and retrieve declarative memories.

Declarative (Explicit) Memory

Memories that can be consciously recalled and verbalized, including episodic and semantic information.

Non-Declarative (Implicit) Memory

Unconscious memories expressed through performance, such as skills, habits, conditioning, and priming.

Episodic Memory

Personal experiences tied to a specific time and place (e.g., a birthday party).

Semantic Memory

General facts and meanings devoid of personal context (e.g., Paris is the capital of France).

Motor Skills

Procedural memories for bodily movements (e.g., riding a bike).

Cognitive Skills

Learned habits or problem-solving strategies performed without conscious awareness.

Conditioning

Learning in which a stimulus acquires predictive value (e.g., flinching at a loud sound).

Priming

Prior exposure to a stimulus that unconsciously influences later behavior (e.g., ‘yellow’ speeding recognition of ‘banana’).

Necessary vs. Sufficient

A brain area can be necessary for a function (damage abolishes it) yet not sufficient because other regions are also required.

Non-Isomorphism (Function vs. Structure)

Lack of one-to-one mapping between brain regions and psychological functions; areas are often multifunctional.

Fusiform Gyrus

Temporal-occipital region vital for face recognition but dependent on wider networks to operate.

Hebbian Learning

Synaptic strengthening mechanism—‘cells that fire together, wire together’—underlying memory trace formation.

Long-Term Potentiation (LTP)

Enduring increase in synaptic strength thought to support synaptic consolidation.

Synaptic Consolidation (Syn-C)

Cellular processes occurring minutes to hours after learning that stabilize a memory via protein synthesis and LTP.

Systems Consolidation (Sys-C)

Gradual transfer of memory reliance from hippocampus to distributed cortical networks over days to years.

Ribot’s Law

After brain injury, recent memories are lost more easily than remote ones because older memories are more fully consolidated.

Standard Consolidation Theory (SCT)

Model stating hippocampus encodes memories that later become cortically stored and independent of the hippocampus.

Subsequent-Memory Paradigm

Experimental design that compares brain activity during encoding for later-remembered versus later-forgotten items.

Subsequent Memory Effects (SMEs)

Encoding-related brain activity differences that predict later recall success.

Tip-of-the-Tongue (TOT) State

Metacognitive feeling of imminent recall; associated with stronger SMEs and better later memory.

Simple Cortico-Hippocampal Model

Framework in which sensory cortices encode features, hippocampus indexes them, and damage dissociations reveal component roles.

Encoding

Initial processing of information, engaging sensory areas and laying down neural traces.

Integration (in Memory)

Hippocampal operation that links distributed cortical features into a coherent episode.

Cue-Dependent Retrieval

Process whereby internal or external cues trigger the search and reconstruction of stored memories.

Hippocampus

MTL structure (dentate gyrus, CA3, CA1, subiculum) crucial for forming associative, context-rich memories.

Entorhinal Cortex (ERC)

Gateway cortex that funnels information into and out of the hippocampus.

Perirhinal Cortex (PRC)

Lateral rhinal region specialized for object recognition and familiarity-based memory.

Parahippocampal Cortex (PHC)

Medial temporal area processing spatial and contextual information of scenes.

Trisynaptic Loop

Canonical hippocampal circuit: ERC → Dentate Gyrus → CA3 → CA1 → Subiculum → ERC/cortex.

Dentate Gyrus

First relay in the trisynaptic loop; contributes to pattern separation during encoding.

CA3

Hippocampal subfield involved in auto-associative recall and pattern completion.

CA1

Hippocampal output node that integrates inputs from CA3 and ERC before projecting to subiculum and cortex.

Subiculum

Final stage of hippocampal processing that channels information back to ERC and wider cortex.

Two-Process Theory (2PT)

MTL model: hippocampus mediates slow, detailed recollection; PRC supports fast, context-free familiarity.

Three-Process Theory (3PT)

Extension positing PRC for object memory, PHC for spatial/context memory, and hippocampus for integrating both into episodes.

Recollection

Memory retrieval yielding rich contextual details; hippocampus-dependent.

Familiarity

Rapid sense of knowing without contextual detail; PRC-driven.

Item Memory

Recognition of the object or element itself, usually supported by PRC.

Context (Spatial) Memory

Memory for surrounding environment or situation, primarily involving PHC.

Systems Neuroscience Research (fMRI/PET)

Brain imaging approach used to map activity underlying memory processes in humans.

Event-Related Potentials (ERPs)

Time-locked EEG responses used to measure neural dynamics during encoding and retrieval.

Lesion Studies

Research examining cognitive deficits after brain damage to infer structure-function relationships.

Memory Consolidation

Process by which initially fragile memories become stable and long-lasting.

Indexing Theory

Notion that the hippocampus stores pointers to distributed cortical representations rather than full content.