Psyc 215A Unit 2 Lecture 4: Amnesia And Alzheimer's Disease

Front 1

What is amnesia?

Back 1

A selective disruption of the processes underlying long-term memory. Short-term and sensory memory and typically functional. Other cognitive functions are not impaired.

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Front 2

What brain regions are involved in human amnesia?

Back 2

Temporal lobe amnesia, diencephalic amnesia

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Front 3

Temporal lobe amnesia

Back 3

Mostly effects explicit memory. Damage to hippocampus, amygdala, and medial temporal lobes.

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Front 4

Diencephalic amnesia

Back 4

Mostly effects explicit memory. Damage to the medial thalamus and mamillary nuclei.

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Front 5

Anterograde amnesia

Back 5

Inability to learn new info after the onset of amnesia

Front 6

Retrograde amnesia

Back 6

Loss of info that was learned before the onset of amnesia.

Front 7

Can anterograde and retrograde amnesia occur at the same time?

Back 7

Yes, it is actually common for them to do so.

Front 8

Temporal lobe amnesia patients and the recency and primacy effects?

Back 8

TLA patients exhibit recency effect but nor primacy effect.

Front 9

Recency effect?

Back 9

Remember things that were presented to you recently easier.

Front 10

Primacy effect?

Back 10

Remember things that were presented to you before later this easier.

Front 11

What happened to H.M.?

Back 11

H.M. was an epileptic who has his temporal lobes removed. His seizures were reduced but so was his long-term memory. Experiences little retrograde but lots of anterograde.

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Front 12

What else was or was not effected with H.M.?

Back 12

Intelligence was unaffected. Short-term memory was fine. Recalled childhood memories fine. Anterograde amnesia was not global.

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Front 13

Three major scientific contributions of H.M.'s case.

Back 13

Medial temporal lobes are invovled in memory. STM, remote memory, and LTM are distinctly separate. Memory may exist but may not be recalled.

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Front 14

Consolidation

Back 14

Moving of memories from STM to LTM.

Front 15

Effects of cerebral ischemia on the hippocampus and memory?

Back 15

Patients who experience global cerebral ischemia often suffer from medial temporal lobe amnesia.

Front 16

Can hippocampal damage alone cause amnesia?

Back 16

According to R.B.'s case, where damage was suffered only on one part of the hippocampus, yes.

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Front 17

Korsakoff's Syndrome is due to?

Back 17

Damage to medial thalamus and/or mamillary bodies. Caused by thiamine deficiency as a result of chronic alcoholism.

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Front 18

Korsakoff's Syndrome is?

Back 18

A type of diencephalic amnesia. Symptoms include primarily anterograde amnesia, plus confusion and personality changes. Retrograde amnesia develops in later stages.

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Front 19

What happened with patient J.K?

Back 19

Developed Parkinson's disease and began to have memory problems due to damage to basal ganglia. Impaired ability to perform tasks. Thus, has implicit memory deficits, but could still recall explicit events.

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Front 20

Alzheimer's Disease?

Back 20

Most comment neurodegenerative disorder.

Front 21

Primary and secondary symptoms of Alzheimer's?

Back 21

Primary (impairments in retro and antero memory, inability to solve problems, regression to a child-like stage)

Secondary (Delusions, depression, agitation, aggressive behavour)

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Front 22

Pathological features of Alzheimer's?

Back 22

Cortical degeneration, neuritic (amyloid) plaques, neurofibrillary tangles

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Front 23

Cortical degeneration in Alzheimer's?

Back 23

Most effected areas are the limit cortex, temporal cortex, and parietal cortex. Earliest and most severe changes are observed in the entorhinal cortex. Primary sensory and motor areas are relatively spared.

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Front 24

Neuritic (amyloid) plates

Back 24

Location mostly in the cerebral cortex. Extrcellular deposits of beta-amyloid. Also found in non-Alzheimer dementia patients.

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Front 25

Neurofibrillary tangles

Back 25

Located in the cerebral cortex and hippocampus. Intracellular deposits of phophorylated tau protein.

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Front 26

Posttraumatic amnesia

Back 26

Concussions may cause retrograde amnesia for the period before the blow and some antero after. Same is seen with comas. Suggests a temporary failure of memory consolidation. Hebb's theory is that memories are stored in the short term by neural activity and interference with this prevents memory consolidation.

Hint 26

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Front 27

Does the hippicampus store memories temporarily?

Back 27

Perhaps. This is the standard consolidation theory. Another theory is that the hippocampus stores memories permanently, and they only become stronger over time.

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Front 28

What is attention?

Back 28

The selective narrowing or focusing of awareness to part of the sensory environment or to a class of stimuli. Internal processes used to set priorities for mental functioning. Selective: reflects limitations on how much the brain can process at one time.

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Front 29

Neural substrates of attention?

Back 29

Frontal lobes play a major role (damage can lead to excessive focusing on external stimuli and difficulty shifting attention). Parietal lobes are important as well, as revealed form brain damaged patients.

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Front 30

Visual neglect

Back 30

Tendency to ignore things on left side of body. Results from damage to right parietal lobe.

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Front 31

Is visual neglect a sensory problem?

Back 31

No! Info from neglected side gets through, but one is not consciously aware of it.

Hint 31

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