Reaction to Milner paper This review paper asks the question: to what degree can molecular biology and cognitive neuroscience be united. The articles review the memory systems and findings over the years. Remarkable advances have been made in both molecular problem of memory and systems problem of memory over the years. Although we have a good amount of knowledge about the switch from short term to long term memory on a molecular level, we don't know a great deal about the downstream genes and proteins. Likewise, we are also facing some challenges in the systemic level – we still don't know much about the medial temporal lobe system.
I think this paper successfully reviewed advances over the years and raised some interesting questions and …show more content…
Hippocampal formation was removed from monkeys after learning a discrimination task to study its importance in retrograde amnesia. It was found that hippocampal damage caused monkeys to present severe deficiency in remembering recently learned information. However, removal of hippocampal formation did not cause deficiency in remembering objects learned long ago. The authors concluded these results indicate that hippocampal formation is required for memory storage temporarily after learning, and that it does not have a role in permanent memory. This paper successfully described a retrograde amnesia study. The reason for the hippocampal formation was clearly stated and was based on empirical research. This experiment gives us more information about the role of hippocampal formation. However, the author’s conclusion could be improved. The conclusion was based on whether the monkeys were still able to discriminate between objects that they have learned prior to the hippocampal formation removal. So this experiment shows us hippocampal formation is involved in temporary memory storage of objects and that its not involved in permanent memory of objects. However, should we conclude hippocampal formation is not involved in permanent memory at all? It might still have a role in permanent memory of other information – information other than objects. Therefore, future studies should …show more content…
It was found that rats who had a longer interval between learning and hippocampal lesion retained significant contextual memory (fear learning in the presence of context) but not tonal memory (fear learning in the presence of tone). The authors concluded from the experiment that fear leaning is not a single process and the hippocampus has a temporally limited role in connecting fear memories triggered by “polymodal” sensory stimuli.
I agree with the conclusion that fear learning is not a single process, it also reasonable to conclude that hippocampus has a time limited role in fear learning based on the results of this study. It maybe that hippocampus needs more time to establish associations being learned. These results are significant since such experiments can tell us how long it takes for fear learning to be stored. However, a disadvantage with lesion studies is that it tends to localize a behavior to a region/structure. It doesn't tell us much about the neural pathways or specific biomolecules involved in fear memory. We know that hippocampus is involved in fear learning and retrograde amnesia, but is it the only region involved? If there is a specific pathway involved in fear learning, then damage at any one of the points along the pathway may alter behavior. Future studies should include superior techniques (such as electrophysiology, optogenetics etc) to target
I think this paper successfully reviewed advances over the years and raised some interesting questions and …show more content…
Hippocampal formation was removed from monkeys after learning a discrimination task to study its importance in retrograde amnesia. It was found that hippocampal damage caused monkeys to present severe deficiency in remembering recently learned information. However, removal of hippocampal formation did not cause deficiency in remembering objects learned long ago. The authors concluded these results indicate that hippocampal formation is required for memory storage temporarily after learning, and that it does not have a role in permanent memory. This paper successfully described a retrograde amnesia study. The reason for the hippocampal formation was clearly stated and was based on empirical research. This experiment gives us more information about the role of hippocampal formation. However, the author’s conclusion could be improved. The conclusion was based on whether the monkeys were still able to discriminate between objects that they have learned prior to the hippocampal formation removal. So this experiment shows us hippocampal formation is involved in temporary memory storage of objects and that its not involved in permanent memory of objects. However, should we conclude hippocampal formation is not involved in permanent memory at all? It might still have a role in permanent memory of other information – information other than objects. Therefore, future studies should …show more content…
It was found that rats who had a longer interval between learning and hippocampal lesion retained significant contextual memory (fear learning in the presence of context) but not tonal memory (fear learning in the presence of tone). The authors concluded from the experiment that fear leaning is not a single process and the hippocampus has a temporally limited role in connecting fear memories triggered by “polymodal” sensory stimuli.
I agree with the conclusion that fear learning is not a single process, it also reasonable to conclude that hippocampus has a time limited role in fear learning based on the results of this study. It maybe that hippocampus needs more time to establish associations being learned. These results are significant since such experiments can tell us how long it takes for fear learning to be stored. However, a disadvantage with lesion studies is that it tends to localize a behavior to a region/structure. It doesn't tell us much about the neural pathways or specific biomolecules involved in fear memory. We know that hippocampus is involved in fear learning and retrograde amnesia, but is it the only region involved? If there is a specific pathway involved in fear learning, then damage at any one of the points along the pathway may alter behavior. Future studies should include superior techniques (such as electrophysiology, optogenetics etc) to target