Title: Psychology / Biopsychology / 12_Memory
Tags: Biopsychology::12_Memory Biopsychology::Semester_2

Q: What is the difference between declarative and non declarative memory?
A: declarative: long term memory that we can put into words (episodic, semantic)
non-declarative : long term memory that we can not put into words (playing the piano)

Q: Where do we get the idea that there are multiple memory systems in the first place?
A: There are varying kinds of amnesia that all affect our memory abilities differently.

Q: What is the difference between retrograde and anterograde amnesia?
A: Retrograde: Events/Things learned leading up to the trauma cannot be recalled
Anterogade: Memory formation after the trauma is impaired

Q: What is transient global amnesia?
A: A very severe amnesia that only lasts for a day, after which the patient completely recovers.

Q: What did Lashley's rat-brain removal experiment find out about the location of memories?
A: That there is no specific region in the brain that stores memories, the whole brain is involved in learning and memory.

Q: What was Hebb's idea of how memories are stored?
A: Memories are stored in distributed networks (cell assemblies) of neurons that are set up by simultaneous activation.
(subpopulations of those can reactivate the entire assembly)

Q: Where in the brain are specific memories stored?
A: In the brain areas used for the original sensory processing.

Q: What part of the brain is essential for the formation of episodic long term memory?
A: The Hippocampus

Q: What was the deal with Patient H.M.?
A: His hippocampus got removed, resulting in him not being able to form episodic long term memories.

Q: What does a strong activation of the hippocampus during a specific event imply?
A: The memory of that event will be stronger.

Q: What is the idea behind radial arm mazes?
A: Structure with a central area and corridors reaching outwards in multiple directions. Mouses must remember which of the arms they already visited, making it an episodic memory task.

Q: What are place cells?
A: Hippocampal neurons that spike when we are in a specific location of the environment that we have previously explored. This location is also referred to as the neuron's place field.

Q: What is the difference between place cells and grid cells in regards to their activation pattern?
A: Place cells only activate for a specific location
Grid cells activate at a range of different locations following a pattern specific to every grid cell.

Q: How do grid cells estimate the position in space?
A: The grid maps of the cells are spatially shifted and have different scales. By overlapping the activation from multiple different grid cells, the position can be estimated.

Q: How do place cells and grid cells differ in relation to objects?
A: Place cells are object-specific, they help us orient in relation to specific landmarks
Grid cells are object-independent, they only approximate our location in a space

Q: What did the London Taxi Driver Study find?
A: Compared to the control group, the posterior part of the hippocampus was larger in taxi drivers (as they were experienced in orienting the "maze" of London).
The taxi drivers longer on the job also showed a higher density of grey matter in the posterior hippocampus, further supporting the hypothesis that the hippocampus is heavily involved in memories related to spatial orienting.

Q: What two kinds of cells are involved in spatial memory?
A: place cells and grid cells

Q: What effect does a hippocampus lesion have on non-declarative memory?
A: Very little / None at all

Q: What part of the brain is important in forming non-declarative memory?
A: The Basal Ganglia

Q: What information can Parkinson's disease patients give us in regards to the brain parts involved in non-declarative memory?
A: Parkinson's disease results in a heavy impairment of non-declarative memory. As this illness is a basal ganglia deficit, the phenomenon strongly hints towards there being a connection between the basal ganglia and non-declarative memory.

Q: What pattern can be witnessed when parkinsons's disease patients try the weather card prediction task?
A: As it is a non-declarative memory task, patients with PD fail to learn the underlying pattern. To contrast: In declarative memory tasks, patients with PD perform normally.

Q: What two loops are involved in learning?
A: Late learning loop -> Cortico-striato-thalamo-cortical loop
Early learning loop -> Cortico-cerebello-thalamo-cortical loop

Q: How do we know that the primary motor cortex is involved in non-declarative memory processing?
A: When learning a motor task: Primary motor cortex activation increases with implicit motor learning, but decreases as soon as explicit knowledge about the task is available.

Q: What is the main difference between the working memory and the long-term memroy?
A: The temporal component: information in the working memory is stored for a much shorter period of time

Q: How long does information stay in the working memory?
A: In the range of seconds.

Q: What is the part of the working memory called that does the active processing of information?
A: Central executive.

Q: What are the two main systems in the working memory?
A: Phonetic loop
Visuospatial sketchpad

Q: What are the two limitations of the working memory?
A: temporal: can only store information for several seconds
capacity: can only store a very limited number of items

Q: Why does it seem that the phonetic loop can store more items when compared to the visuospatial sketchpad?
A: In the phonetic loop, it is easier to chunk items, making it possible to store a bigger number of individual items.

Q: How many items can the visuospatial sketchpad and phonetic loop store respectively?
A: visuo: 3 - 4
phonetic: 7 +/- 2

Q: How are memories stored in the working memory? (older idea)
A: Prefrontal neurons keep firing continuously (reactivating) in order to retain the information

Q: What part of the brain is responsible for transient storage of visuo-spatial information?
A: The interparietal sulcus (IPS)

Q: What is the "activity silent" working memory?
A: Storage in the working memory via short-term synaptic plasticity, unspecific stimulus can reactivate these memories

Q: What 2 different ideas are there on how information is retained in the working memory?
A: activity-silent working memory (short-term plasticity)
continuously reactivating neurons that keep information alive

Q: Where in the brain the working memory implemented?
A: Across a distributed cortical network

Q: When looking at the networks of the working memory, which neural networks are they most similar to?
A: The networks of attention

Q: What is the job of the prefrontal areas in the working memory?
A: Controlling working memory processes (not only storage)

Q: Where in the brain is (visual) information of the working memory stored?
A: Mostly in posterior brain areas

Q: How are attention networks connected to the working memory?
A: We can focus our attention on items stored in the working memory, causing stronger activations in V1-V4 while involving both the FEF and IPS

Q: In which two areas of the brain do neurons spike during the retention of spatial locations in short-term memory?
A: Prefrontal areas
Parietal areas

Q: Where in the brain can neurons be found that become tuned to certain faces?
A: In the inferior temporal cortex