Learning and Memory Flashcards

Vocabulary flashcards based on lecture notes about learning and memory.

Learning

Process of acquiring knowledge.

Memory

Storage of acquired knowledge; involves changes in synaptic connections.

Consolidation

Process of converting immediate experiences into stored memories.

Involves protein synthesis and synapse creation.

• inhibition of protein synthesis → no long term memory

Consolidation aids:

• Rehearsal/ repetition = necessary

• Emotions

• Sleep

Storage is distributed throughout brain

Working Memory

Active holding of information in consciousness; involves active neuronal firing; has limited capacity and lasts only seconds unless actively attended to.

Short Term Memory

Limited capacity memory that persists only minutes to hours in the absence of rehearsal, holding approximately 7 items.

LTP (Long Term Potentiation)

Active synapses leading to increased sensitivity to subsequent stimuli, involving the NMDA glutamate receptor, and not necessarily permanent.

Long Term Memory

Memory stored for hours, days, or years, but initially sensitive to disruption; involves protein synthesis and creation of synapses.

Amnesia

Loss of memory.

Anterograde Amnesia

Loss of ability to form new memories.

Retrograde Amnesia

Loss of access to memories from the past.

Explicit Memory

Conscious memory; includes declarative memory (facts and events) and spatial learning, which relies on the medial temporal lobe, especially the hippocampus.

Implicit Memory

Unconscious memory; includes

1. procedural

2. emotional (limbic/ amygdala)

3. motor memory (cerebellum)

Declarative Memory

Memory of facts and events; dependent on the hippocampus for spatial learning.

MICE!

Procedural Memory

@ STRIATUM

Type of implicit memory:

Memory for skills and habits; involves physical or mental tasks performed with nonconscious awareness; associations based on 'if-then' processing.

Priming (a form of implicit memory retrieval where exposure to a stimulus influences responses to a later stimulus)

Emotional Memory

Learned emotional responses to stimuli, especially fear; mediated by the amygdala; often does not require conscious participation.

Motor Memory

Cerebellar learning involving simple, conditioned responses and complex, coordinated motor skills; circuit involves the red nucleus, inferior olivary nucleus, and climbing fibers.

Memory Retrieval

Reconstruction of an experience in working memory; subject to re-interpretation, not an immutable replaying of facts.

Experience → ? → working memory

Encoding

working memory → ? → short term memory

Long term potentiation (LTP)

Short term memory → ? → long term memory

consolidation

What did HM have removed to decrease seizures?

The hippocampus and medial temporal lobe structures.

What was learned from HM sx?

removal of hippocampus + temporal lobe →

• loss of consolidation

• in ability to form new memories

storage and retrieval were unaffected

What are “basic” emotions?

Anger

Fear

Happiness

Disgust

Sadness

Mood

sustained emotional state

Emotional components

Cortex: conscious feeling and cortical perception

ANS/ Hypothalamus: physiological changes

system path of emotion

Sensory input → neocortex → limbic system → hypothalamus

What does the cingulum do?

connects the cingulate gyrus with other brain regions