Long Term Memory

The Hebbian theory states that “neurons that fire together wire together.” This theory, credited to Canadian psychologist Donald Hebb, is underlying principle for how we learn as well as how we build and maintain new long-term memories. There are two types of long-term memory, explicit and implicit. Explicit memory is memory of facts and events. Explicit memory is formed by encoding. consolidation, storage, and retrieval. Encoding is arranging information for each memory from sensory system and then translating it to what is necessary. Consolidation is changing the encoded information to information that is permanently stored; hippocampal help in the process of consolidation. Storage is storing these memories in its relevant place. Finally, retrieval is …show more content…
The hippocampus plays an important role in memory formation. The hippocampus helps to reactivate particular activity pattern in the various regions of the cortex. Information that has been encoded in long-term memory for a lengthy period of time no longer requires the intervention of the hippocampus. the neurons of the hippocampus display a great deal of plasticity. This plasticity is achieved through long-term potentiation (LTP). Long-term potentiation can cause the long-term strengthening of the synapses between two neurons that are activated simultaneously. The axons that make connections to the neurons of the hippocampus are exposed to a high-frequency stimulus, then the amplitude of the excitatory potential measured in these neurons is increased for a long period of time. Glutamate, the neurotransmitter, is released into these synapses that helps to binds the different subtypes of receptors on the postsynaptic neuron. Such receptors are AMPA and NMDA. If this receptor is blocked with a drug, or if the gene involved in its construction is disabled, LTP cannot