14 How Do We Learn And Remember?

Front 1

Neuroplasticity

Back 1

The nervous system's potential for physical or chemical change that enhances its adaptability

Front 2

Learning

Back 2

A change in an organism's behavior as a result of experience

Front 3

Memory

Back 3

The ability to recall or recognize previous experience

Front 4

Memory Trace

Back 4

A mental representation of a previous experience

Front 5

Pavlovian Conditioning

Back 5

Learning procedure whereby a neutral stimulus (such as a tone) comes to elicit a response because of its repeated pairing with some event (such as the delivery of food)

-AKA Classical Conditioning or Respondent Conditioning

Front 6

Conditioned Stimulus

Unconditioned Stimulus

Back 6

CS

-In Pavlovian conditioning, an originally neutral stimulus that, after association with an unconditioned stimulus (UCS), triggers a conditioned response

UCS

-A stimulus that unconditionally - naturally and automatically - triggers a response

Front 7

Conditioned Response

Unconditioned Response

Back 7

CR

In Pavlovian conditioning, the learned response to a formerly neutral conditioned stimulus

UCR

In classical conditioning, the unlearned, naturally occurring response to the unconditioned stimulus, such as salivation when food is in the mouth

Front 8

CS, UCS, CR, UCR

-A tone (__) is associated with a painless puff of air (__) to the participant's eye

-Blinking is normal reaction (__) to a puff of air

-Learning occurs when blinking occurs in response the CS alone (__)

Back 8

-A tone (CS) is associated with a painless puff of air (UCS) to the participant's eye

-Blinking is normal reaction (UCR) to a puff of air

-Learning occurs when blinking occurs in response the CS alone (CR)

Front 9

Fear Conditioning

Back 9

Learned association, a conditioned emotional response, between a neutral stimulus an a noxious event such as a shock

Front 10

Operant Conditioning

Back 10

Learning procedure in which the consequences (such as obtaining a reward) of a particular behavior (such as pressing a bar) increase or decrease the probability of the behavior occurring again

Aka Instrumental Conditioning

Front 11

What are the 2 categories of memory?

Back 11

Implicit Memory

Unconscious Memory

-Subjects can demonstrate knowledge, such as a skill, conditioned response, or recalling events on prompting, but cannot explicitly retrieve the information

Explicit Memory

Conscious Memory

-Subjects can retrieve an item and indicate that they know that the retrieved item is the correct item

Front 12

Amnesia

Can they perform an implicit or explicit memory?

Back 12

Partial or total loss of memory

They can perform implicit memory tests

Front 13

Learning Set

Back 13

An understanding of how a problem can be solved with a rule that can be applied in many different situations

Front 14

Declarative Memory

VS

Procedural Memory

Back 14

Declarative Memory

Ability to recount what one knows, to detail the time, place, and circumstances of events; often lost in amnesia

Procedural Memory

Ability to recall a movement sequence or how to perform some act or behavior

Front 15

What Makes Explicit and Implicit Memory Different?

Back 15

Implicit = Bottom Up or data-driven manner

-Information is encoded in the same way it was perceived

-PASSIVE ROLE

Explicit = Top Down or conceptually-driven manner

-The subject reorganizes the information before it is encoded

-ACTIVE ROLE

Front 16

Priming

Back 16

Using a stimulus to sensitize the nervous system to a later presentation of the same or a similar stimulus

-Often used to measure implicit memory

Front 17

Where is Short-Term and Long-Term Memory processed?

Back 17

Short-Term

Frontal Lobes

Long Term

Temporal Lobes

Front 18

Martin + Colleagues

Which brain regions activates recalling color and action words?

Back 18

Color --> activates a region in the ventral temporal lobe

Action words --> activates a region in the middle temporal gyrus

Front 19

Episodic Memory

Back 19

Autobiographical memory for events pegged to specific place and time contexts

Front 20

Episodic Amnesia

E.g. Patient K.C

Back 20

-Inability to recall any personally experienced events

-Associated with frontal lobe injuries or reduced blood flow to the frontal lobes

Front 21

Dissociating Memory Circuits

E.g. H.M

Back 21

-Suffered severe amnesia

-Could not recall anything that had happened after the surgery (no explicit memory)

-Still had implicit memory

Front 22

Impaired Implicit Memory and Intact Explicit Memory

Patient J.K

Back 22

-Developed Parkinson's disease --> damage to basal ganglia

Front 23

List 7 of the main structures for Explicit Memory

Back 23

-Medial Temporal Region

(Hippocampus, Amygdala, Entorhinal Cortex, Parahippocampal Cortex, Perirhinal Cortex)

-Frontal Cortex

Front 24

Parahippocampal Cortex

Back 24

Receives connections from parietal cortex; believed to be involved in visuospatial processing

Front 25

Perirhinal Cortex

Back 25

Receives connections from the visual regions of the ventral stream; believed to be involved in visual object memory

Front 26

Entorhinal Cortex

Back 26

Receives projections from Parahippocampal and Perirhinal cortices; integrative function - first area to show cell death in Alzheimer's disease

Front 27

Visuospatial Memory

Back 27

Using visual information to identify an object's location in space

Front 28

How does the hippocampus correlate to spatial memory?

Back 28

Good spatial memories = bigger hippocampi

Front 29

What are 2 benefits of the neocortex projecting to the entorhinal cortex, at which it projects back to the neocortex?

Back 29

1. Signals from the medial temporal regions back to the cortical sensory regions keep the sensory experience alive in the brain: the neural record outlasts the actual experience

2. Pathway back to the neocortex means it is kept apprised of the information being processed in medial temporal regions

Front 30

All sensory systems project to which part of the brain region? Long term or short term?

Back 30

Frontal Lobes (Short Term)

Front 31

Tracing the Explicit Memory Circuit

Korsakoff's Syndrome

Back 31

Permanent loss of the ability to learn new information (anterograde amnesia) and to retrieve old information (retrograde amnesia)

Caused by diencephalic damage from chronic alcoholism or malnutrition that produces a vitamin B1 deficiency

Front 32

Retrograde Amnesia

Back 32

(Old Memories)

Inability to remember events that took place before the onset of amnesia

Front 33

Anterograde Amnesia

Back 33

(New Memories)

Inability to remember events subsequent to a disturbance of the brain

Front 34

Mishkin + Colleagues

What were the 4 brain structures that they proposed were neural circuit for explicit memory?

Back 34

-Temporal Lobe

-Frontal Lobe

-Medial Thalamus

-Basal Forebrain-Activating Systems

Front 35

How does the hippocampus consolidate new memories?

Back 35

In consolidation, or stabilizing a memory trace after learning, memories move from the hippocampus to diffuse regions in the neocortex

Front 36

Mishkin + Colleagues

What were the 4 brain structures that they proposed were neural circuit for implicit memory?

Back 36

-Basal Ganglia

-Ventral Thalamus

-Substantia Nigra

-Premotor Cortex

Front 37

Why does Mishkin believe that implicit memories are unconscious?

Back 37

Because the connections between the basal ganglia and cortex are unidirectional.

-Basal ganglia receives information from the cortex, but does not project back to the cortex

-For memories to be conscious, there must be feedback to the cortex. Medial temporal lobe projects back to the cortex, so explicit memories are conscious

Front 38

Emotional Memory

Back 38

Memory for the affective properties of stimuli or events

-Could be implicit or explicit

Front 39

What is critical for emotional memory?

What if it is damaged?

Back 39

Amygdala

-Damage to the amygdala abolishes emotional memory but has little effect on implicit or explicit memory

Front 40

What are 6 structures that create the circuit for emotional memory?

Back 40

-Amygdala

-Medial Temporal Cortex

-Brainstem

-Hypothalamus

-Periaquaductal Gray Matter (PAG)

-Basal Ganglia

Front 41

Memory is associated with the change of what?

Back 41

The change that takes place at the synapse

Front 42

Associative Learning

Back 42

Linkage of two or more unrelated stimuli to elicit a behavioral response

Front 43

Long-Term Potentiation (LTP)

Back 43

Long-lasting increase in synaptic effectiveness after high frequency stimulation of EPSP

-A part in associative learning

Front 44

LTP

Explain 3 ways in which EPSP increase in size

Back 44

1. More neurotransmitter must be released from the presynaptic membrane

2. Postsynaptic membrane must become more sensitive to the same amount of transmitter

3. Or both changes must take place

Front 45

Long-Term Depression (LTD)

Back 45

Decrease in EPSP size

-Neuron becomes less active in response to repeated stimulation

-Requires Ca 2+ entry : decrease responsiveness and numbers of AMPA receptors

Front 46

Does LTP or LTD create or clear memory?

Back 46

LTP creates memories, while LTD clears out old memories

Front 47

LTP

What are the 2 different types of receptors that Glutamate acts on on the postsynaptic membrane?

Back 47

AMPA

-Normally responds to glutamate

NMDA

-Doubly gated channels

-Normally blocked by magnesium (Mg 2+) ions

Front 48

What neural processes underlie the persistent, long-term changes of learning?

Back 48

-Ca 2+ enters postsynaptic neuron and activates a second messenger (e.g cyclic AMP)

-cAMP alters gene expression in nucleus, which physically alters synapse:

Structural changes in the synapse (Dendritic spines)

Formation or loss of synapses

Front 49

Which 4 part of the brain is capable of generating neurons?

Back 49

-Olfactory Bulb

-Hippocampal Formation

-Neocortex (Frontal and Temporal Lobes)

Front 50

How does learning effect hippocampal volume?

Back 50

Memory improvement and structural changes in the hippocampus extend well into adulthood

Front 51

In an enriched environment, how does it influence the brain?

Back 51

-Increases brain weight

-More dendrites, astrocytes, blood capillaries, synapses per neuron

-Increase mitochondrial volume (greater metabolic activity)

Front 52

Specific sits in the DNA of neurons involved in specific memories might exist in what way?

Back 52

Methylated or Non Methylated States

Front 53

How does hormone correlate to plasticity?

Estrogen, Dendritic, Neocortex, Testosterone

Back 53

-High lvl of estrogen = more dendritic spines in the hippocampus

-Low lvl of estrogen = more dendritic spines in neocortex, but fewer dendritic spines in the hippocampus

-Low lvl of testosterone = more dendritic spines in neocortex

Front 54

Glucocorticoid

Back 54

Release from the adrenal cortex in times of stress

-Steady levels of glucocorticoids = prolong stress (neurotoxic)

-Stress can kill hippocampal cells

Front 55

Nerve Growth Factor (NGF)

Back 55

Neurotrophic factor that stimulates neurons to grow dendrites and synapses and, in some cases, promotes the survival of neurons

Front 56

Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor (BDNF)

Back 56

-May enhance plastic changes, such as the growth of dendrities and synapses

-Increases when animals learn to solve problems

Front 57

Sensitization

Back 57

An increased number of receptors, synapses, and dendrites

Front 58

Behavioral Sensitzation

Back 58

Escalating behavioral response to the repeated administration of a psychomotor stimulant, such as amphetamine, cocaine, or nicotine

AKA drug-induced behavioral sensitization

Front 59

Principles of Brain Plasticity

(List 7)

Back 59

1. Behavioral change reflects change in the brain

2. All nervous systems are plastic in the same general way

3. Plastic changes are age-specific

4. Prenatal events can influence brain plasticity throughout life

5. Plastic changes are brain-region dependent

6. Experience-Dependent Changes Interact (Metaplasticity)

7. Plasticity has Pros and Cons

Front 60

Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)

Back 60

Damage to the brain that results from a blow to the head

Front 61

What are the 3 possible ways to recover from brain injury?

Back 61

1. Learn new ways to solve problems

2. Reorganize the brain to do more with less

3. Generate new neurons to produce new circuits

Front 62

Epidermal Growth Factor (EGF)

Back 62

Neurotrophic factor that stimulates the subventricular zone to generate cells that migrate into the striatum and eventually differentiate into neurons and glia.