Set 2 (AMNESIA AND IMPLICIT MEMORY)

Localization of function

The extent to which specific cognitive processes (memory) are carried out by specialized brain regions versus distributed networks working together

Declarative (explicit) memory

Long-term memory for facts and events that can be consciously recalled and verbally described

Nondeclarative (implicit) memory

Long-term memory that influences behavior without conscious awareness

Episodic memory

Declarative memory for personally experienced events situated in time and place

Semantic memory

Declarative memory for general knowledge

Procedural memory

A type of nondeclarative memory involving skills and habits supported primarily by the striatum

Priming

A form of implicit memory (long term memory acquired unconsciously) in which prior exposure to a stimulus facilitates later processing of the same or related stimulus

Classical conditioning

A type of associative learning in which a neutral stimulus becomes linked to a meaningful stimulus

Nonassociative learning

A simple form of learning such as habituation or sensitization that does not require forming associations between stimuli

Medial temporal lobe (MTL)

Brain region including the hippocampus and surrounding cortex critical for declarative memory formation

Diencephalon

Brain structures (including thalamus and mammillary bodies) involved in declarative memory and implicated in some amnesic syndromes

Amnesia

Clinically significant impairment in memory (memory loss) that disrupts daily functioning while other cognitive abilities remain relatively intact

Single dissociation

A pattern in which damage to a specific brain region impairs one cognitive function while sparing others

Anterograde amnesia

Impairment in the ability to form new declarative memories after brain damage

Retrograde amnesia

Loss of declarative memories formed before brain damage

Ribot’s law

Principle stating that older memories are more resistant to disruption than newer memories

Temporal gradient

A pattern in retrograde amnesia in which recent memories are more impaired than remote memories

Henry Molaison

Patient who underwent bilateral medial temporal lobe resection in 1953 resulting in severe anterograde amnesia and temporally graded retrograde amnesia

Bilateral temporal lobectomy

Surgical removal of both medial temporal lobes

Entorhinal cortex

MTL region serving as the major input and output gateway between the hippocampus and neocortex

Perirhinal cortex

MTL cortical region involved in

• object recognition

• familiarity-based memory

Parahippocampal cortex

MTL cortical region involved in

• spatial and

• contextual aspects of memory

Hippocampal indexing theory

proposes the hippocampus initially stores an index or pointer that binds distributed cortical representations of a memory and later becomes unnecessary after systems consolidation

Cellular (synaptic) consolidation

Short-term stabilization process of memory formation occurring over minutes to hours

• involving synaptic plasticity

• early, time-limited phase of memory formation that stabilizes labile short-term memories into long-term memories

Systems consolidation

• Long-term reorganization process

• occurring over days to years

• memories gradually become independent of the hippocampus and rely on strengthened cortical connections

Standard systems consolidation theory (SCT)

proposes

• the hippocampus is required for the formation and early retrieval of declarative memories

• older memories become hippocampus-independent over time

Memory consolidation hypothesis

The idea that the

• hippocampus plays a time-limited role in binding distributed cortical elements of a memory

• eventually after cortical networks can support retrieval independently

Clive Wearing

Patient with severe amnesia due to viral encephalitis showing profound anterograde and retrograde amnesia but preserved procedural memory

• Lost declarative memory right and left temporal lobes, damaged his hippocampus

• damage to some of his frontal lobe

• Has familiarity

E.P.

Patient with severe amnesia caused by herpes simplex encephalitis with extensive medial temporal lobe damage and profound declarative memory impairment

Wechsler Memory Scale (WMS)

Standardized neuropsychological test used to assess declarative memory function in clinical settings

Rey Complex Figure

Neuropsychological test assessing visual declarative memory by requiring immediate copy and delayed recall of a complex figure