Neurobiology of Learning and Memory

Final Exam Cumulative Questions

In classical (Pavlovian) conditioning, the learned association is between a…

Stimulus and another stimulus

Won Nobel Prize for discovery of a memory trace in studies of Aplysia californica

Eric Kandel

What is an engram?

A memory trace

People who are classified as having HSAM have exceptional __________________ memory

autobiographical

The field EPSP directly measures depolarization in a neuron.

False

Bliss and Lomo concluded that real memory in the intact animal makes use of synchronous, repetitive volleys to a specific population of fibers.

False

Liu et al. examined a group of animals injected with AAV₉-TRE-EYFP and trained them on fear conditioning OFF of Dox. When they optically stimulated the infused area, the mice…

did not freeze

Memories are strengthened and maintained in stages but synapses are not

False

Examined effect of NMDA antagonist on memory

Whitlock, Heynan, Shuler, and Bear (2007)

Theodule Ribot was known for proposing:

That newer memories are more susceptible to disruption than older memories

In Aplysia, when the siphon is touched repeatedly the gill withdrawal response decreases. This is an example of a simple form of learning that is called ______________.

habituation

How does the postsynaptic density change following induction of LTP?

1) More GluA1 AMPA receptors are anchored in the postsynaptic membrane

2) More GluA1 AMPA receptors are available in the extrasynaptic region

3) GluA1 AMPA channel conductance changes

How did Whitlock et al work around some of the challenges typically facing researchers who try to test the hypothesis that LTP and memory share the same substrates and processes?

They used inhibitory avoidance as the memory task

The ionic composition of the extracellular fluid becomes more negative when nearby neurons are depolarized.

True

Described evidence that the hippocampus plays a role in memory consolidation in humans

Scoville and Milner

The hippocampus is often the focus of studies aimed at understanding the neural basis of memory. Why?

1) It is involved in memory consolidation.

2) Its organization makes it possible to stimulate specific pathways and record in cell groups that are affected by the experimental stimulation.

3) Synapses in the hippocampus show LTP and LTD.

Karl Lashley searched for the engram by damaging the rat cortex and then measuring performance on a memory task. He concluded that…

1) Changes that underlie memory DO NOT occur at the synapse

2) The engram can NOT be localized to a subcortical structure

3) Rats are NOT capable of insightful learning

The two criteria that Whitlock used to classify LTP a viable candidate for a mechanism of memory were

Mimicry and occlusion

According to spike timing dependent plasticity studies carried out by Moo Ming Poo, when the postsynaptic side fires immediately before the presynaptic side

You are likely to see LTD

What does the slope of the field excitatory postsynaptic potential (fEPSP) measure?

It measures the rate of influx of positive ions away from the recording electrode

The sea slug Aplysia californica is used to study memory because of its vast neuronal networks and the richness of its memories.

False

To induce LTP in the dentate gyrus, one could

Give high-frequency stimulation to the perforant path

Found evidence for the “dual memory engram” hypothesis

Liu et al. (2012)

Endel Tulving described episodic memories as memories of 

What, where, and whenof specific events or experiences.

c-fos is an “immediate early gene”. What is an immediate early gene?

A gene that is activated transiently in response to cellular activity

To produce a weakening in synaptic strength you could...

Administer low frequency stimulation

After HM's surgery, he lost

His ability to store new episodic memories for the long term

Recommended using dissociations and converging operations to eliminate alternative explanations in behavioral research.

David Olton

If you blocked protein X and long-term memory was impaired, but induction of LTP did not lead to an increase in expression of protein X, what would you conclude?

LTP and memory may share some characteristics, but LTP is not exactly the same thing as memory.

Edward Chase Tolman concluded that there is more than one kind of learning because rats in his T-maze appeared to learn

1) stimulus-response associations

2) a cognitive map

In Aplysia, when the gill withdrawal response to touching the siphon is augmented after shocking the tail, this is a form of learning called _______________.

sensitization

McDonald and White's research indicates that different memory systems always function independently: i.e. the hippocampus, and only the hippocampus, is involved in processing spatial memory. 

False

Both learning and induction of LTP can occur without synthesis of new proteins.

True

Muller and Pilzeker were known for proposing:

The memory consolidation and perseveration hypothesis

When inducing LTP, one often uses a moderate stimulus to find baseline responses, then administers a high frequency stimulus, then returns to the original moderate stimulus.

True

If you give a drug or make a lesion before training, what might you affect?

1) Memory consolidation

2) Memory acqusition/encoding

3) Attention

4) Motivation

Experimental application of the NMDA receptor antagonist APV before and after high frequency stimulation indicates that NMDA receptors are necessary for

Induction of LTP

Who were the authors of the first LTP study?

Bliss and Lomo

Whitlock et al. used this as a measure of LTD

Phosphorylation state of ser845 site of AMPA receptor

Agranoff, Davis, and Brink showed

Protein synthesis inhibitors given to fish after training impair long-term memory

Scoville and Milner's findings on patient E.G., who had a unilateral temporal resection, suggested that

There is evidence for compensation and plasticity in the brain

Thomas and Loftus found that:

Both bizarre and familiar memories are subject to imagination inflation

In Scoville and Milner's paper, the only patient with a unilateral temporal resection (E.G.) showed

Anterograde amnesia, but only for a few weeks

The McDonald and White study described a group of rats that they called "sham". What does "sham" mean?

Rats that were anesthetized and had the electrode surgically placed in the region that was lesioned in experimental animals, but no lesion was made

In his TED talk, the memory champion Joshua Foer demonstrated this technique that uses visualization of people/objects/events in a familiar environment.

Method of loci

Puromycin is

A protein synthesis inhibitor

Recognized that newer memories were more susceptible to disruption than older memories

Theodule Ribot

Results questioned the assumption that we forget because we have a limited capacity for memories

Parker, Cahill, and McGaugh

First to study memory objectively by asking human subjects to learn nonsense syllables

Hermann Ebbinghaus

Thought that all animal behaviors could be reduced to stimulus-response associations

Clark Hull

Theory of associativity can be remembered by the phrase "neurons that fire together wire together"

Donald O. Hebb

Findings suggested that memory is not always reliable because remembering is not a passive retrieval of information as if from a hard drive but, rather, it is a constructive process

Thomas and Loftus

Observed "insightful learning" in champanzees

Wolfgang Kohler

Proposed the perseveration-consolidation hypothesis

Mueller and Pilzecker

Discovered a conditioned reflex that he called "psychic salivation"

Ivan Pavlov

Credited with the discovery of the space between neurons, later called the synapse

Santiago Ramon y Cajal

Described evidence that the hippocampus plays a role in memory consolidation in humans

Scoville and Milner

Discovered hippocampal place cells

John O'Keefe

In the papers we read for class, we found that exceptionally good memory is associated with exceptionally high intelligence and amnesia is associated with low intelligence.

False

Agranoff, Davis, and Brink reported evidence that

Different phases of memory depend on different biological processes

According to McDonald and White, good performance on the win-stay task depends upon an intact

Dorsal Striatum

According to McDonald and White, the win-stay task involves what kind of learning/memory?

Instrumental learning

David Olton recommended using _________________________ when trying to identify a structure-function relationship in neuroscience because it helps eliminate alternative explanations that may be specific to the limitations of a particular method

converging operations

A grasshopper was trained to avoid an electrified plate. It demonstrated this memory by hopping off when the experimenter placed it on the plate. The experimenter hypothesized that the memory for the association between the plate and the shock was in the motor ganglion, so she surgically removed the motor ganglion and, after the grasshopper recovered, placed the grasshopper on the plate. The grasshopper did not hop off. What can the experimenter conclude?

Results support the hypothesis, but alternative explanations should still be considered

McDonald and White's research indicates that different memory systems always function independently: i.e. the hippocampus, and only the hippocampus, is involved in processing spatial memory. 

False

According to McDonald and White, a task that involves learning about the relationship between a neutral stimulus and rewarding properties is the

Conditioned cue preference (CCP) task

Thomas and Loftus asked participants to imagine doing things that they did not actually do. Their results indicated that the number of times these actions were imagined decreased accuracy of recall.

True

Thomas and Loftus found evidence for imagination inflation only for familiar actions, not for bizarre actions.

False

According to McDonald and White, good performance of the win-shift task depends upon an intact

Hippocampus

After HM's surgery, he lost

His ability to store new episodic memories for the long term