LEARNING

• Learning


  Deals with how experience changes the brain
• Memory


  Deals with how changes in the brain are stored and subsequently reactivated
• Amnesia


  Any pathological loss of memory
• Bilateral Medial Temporal Lobectomy


  • Removal of the medial portions of both temporal lobes, including most of the hippocampus, amygdala, and adjacent cortex
• Global Amnesia


  Amnesia for information presented in all sensory modalities
• Incomplete Picture Test


  A nonsensorimotor test of memory that employs five sets of fragmented drawings
• Remote Memory


  • Memory for experiences in the distant past
• Memory Consolidation


  • The translation of short-term memories into long-term memories
• Explicit Memories


  Conscious long term memory
• Implicit Memories


  Memory without conscious awareness
• Medial Temporal Lobe Amnesia


  evidence of medial temporal lobe damage
• Repetition Priming Test


  Tests that asses implicit memory
• Semantic Memories


  Explicit memories for general facts or information
• Episodic Memories


  Explicit memories for the particular events (autobiographical memory)
• Global Cerebral Ischemia


  Interruption of blood supply to the entire brain
• Transient Global Amnesia


  Sudden onset of amnesia in the absence of any obvious cause in otherwise normal adults
• Korsakoff's Syndrome


  Disorder of memory common in people who have consumed large amounts of alcohol, largely attributable to brain damage associated with thiamine deficiency
• Medial Diencephalic Amnesia


  Amnesia, such as Korsakoff amnesia, associated with damage to the medial diencephalon
• Alzheimer's Disease


  Major cause of amnesia, associated with reduced acetylcholine levels in the brain due to degeneration of the basal forebrain
• Posttraumatic Amnesia


  Amnesia following a nonpenetrating blow to the head
• Coma


  Pathological state of unconsciousness
• Islands of Memory


  Surviving memories for isolated events that occurred during periods for which other memories have been wiped out
• Hebb's Theory


  Memories of experiences are stored in the short term by neural activity reverberating (circulating) in closed circuits
• Engram


  A change in the brain that stores a memory
• Electroconvulsive Shock


  Intense, brief, diffuse, seizure-inducing current administered to the brain through large electrodes attached to the scalp
• Reconsolidation


  The hypothesis that each time a memory is retrieved from long term storage, it is temporarily held in changeable short-term memory
• Dual Trace Theory


  Memories are temporarily stored in the hippocampus until they can be transferred to a more stable cortical storage system
• Delayed Nonmatching-to-Sample Test


  Showed that monkeys with bilateral medial temporal lobectomies have major problems forming long-term memories for objects encountered
• Mumby Box


  Rat version of nonmatching-to-sample test
• Morris Water Maze Test


  Intact rats placed at various locations in a circular pool of murky water rapidly learn to swim to a stationary platform hidden just below the surface
• Radial Arm Maze Test


  Arms radiate out from a central starting chamber, and the same few arms are baited with food each day
• Reference Memory


  Memory for the general principles and skills that are required to perform a task
• Working Memory


  Temporary memory that is necessary for the successful performance of a task on which one is currently working
• Place Cells


  Neurons that respond only when a subject is in specific locations
• Entorhinal Cortex


  An area of the medial temporal cortex that is a major source of neural signals to the hippocampus
• Grid Cells


  Entorhinal neurons that each have an extensive array of evenly spaced place fields, producing a pattern reminiscent of graph paper
• Jennifer Aniston Neurons


  Medial temporal lobe neurons that respond to ideas or concepts rather than to particulars (concept cells)
• Tagging Stage


  Neurons that are active during the learning task are induced to express opsins
• Manipulate Stage


  The previously active neurons are now either inhibited or excited by using light to influence the activity of the opsin-tagged neurons
• Memories are stored diffusely in the brain and thus can survive destruction of any single structure