Cognitive Neuroscience Module 6 Flashcards

Definition: Memory refers to the acquisition, retention, and later use of information acquired from new experiences.
Phases of Memory:
- Encoding: Refers to the changes in the nervous system caused by experience. Also known as the formation of memory traces.
- Storage: The process of stabilizing these traces for long-term retention, often referred to as consolidation.
- Retrieval: Accessing the stored memory traces, which can be triggered by retrieval cues (either internal or external).

Amnesia: A loss of memory for experiences or information while cognitive function remains normal.
Types of Amnesia:
- Anterograde Amnesia: Inability to form new memories for events or information following brain damage.
- Retrograde Amnesia: Loss of memories for events before the occurrence of brain damage.
- Co-occurrence: These types of amnesia often occur together.

Definition: Refers to the lack of memory for the first few years of life.
Characteristics: Sparse memories typically for ages under 10.
Animal Studies: Similar amnesia observed in mice and rats.
Possible Causes:
- Immaturity of the hippocampus and associated cortex.
- The rapid synaptic development may destabilize older memories.
Experimental Evidence: Adult rats can simulate this condition via chemically stimulating neuron growth.

Learning: Refers to the acquisition of memories for performance improvement on tasks.
- May pertain only to the encoding phase (academic) or encompass the entire process of encoding, storage, and retrieval (common usage).

Organization: Memory is categorized based on persistence:
- Temporary Memory: Also known as short-term memory, later termed working memory, which includes the storage and manipulation of information.
- Persistent Memory: Commonly referred to as long-term memory.

Emergence: Established due to the need for a specialized clinical discipline influenced by seminal research by individuals like Brenda Milner and Roger Sperry.
- Brenda Milner: Studied neurosurgical patients and developed assessment protocols identifying memory mechanisms.
- Roger Sperry: Conducted research to establish the functional roles of brain structures.

Memory Types:
- Working Memory: Used for temporary information retention.
- Declarative Memory: Explicit memory encompassing episodic (events) and semantic (facts) memories.
- Nondeclarative Memory: Implicit memory including skill learning, priming, and conditioning.

Patient K.F.:
- Background: Motorcycle accident leading to damage in left temporoparietal cortex.
- Effects: Impaired working memory but intact long-term memory.
Patient H.M. (Henry Molaison):
- Background: Severe epilepsy leading to the surgical removal of medial temporal lobe.
- Effects: No new long-term memories formed, yet short-term memory remained intact. Known for retaining specific skills learned post-surgery.

Priming: A change in stimulus processing due to prior exposure to the same or a related stimulus.
Skill Learning: Gradual performance improvement due to repetitive practice.
Conditioning: Automatic responses formed through associations (classical and operant conditioning).

Categories:
- Motor Sequence Learning: Learning new motor skills incrementally (novices).
- Motor Adaptation: Adjusting existing skills to fit changing environments.

Definition: Improvement in problem-solving abilities leveraging cognitive skills (e.g., task performance requiring discrimination of various stimuli).
Research Methods: Often studied through tasks like probability prediction tasks which utilize implicit learning.

Neuropsychological Evidence for Priming: Demonstrates distinct systems for priming versus episodic memory, using cases like Patient M.S.
fMRI Findings: Investigates the differing brain activations for perceptual and conceptual priming, particularly affecting site-selective responses in sensory cortices.
Behavioral Evidence: Highlights that shallow processing diminishes episodic memory while leaving priming intact, suggesting dependency on different memory systems.