2007PSY Bio Psyc Week 8 pt 2

2007PSY Bio Psyc Week 8 pt 2

1. Memory types:

   • Associative Learning
     • Classical Conditioning
       • Involuntary Behaviours
       • In a basic conditioning procedure, a neutral stimuli (i.e., conditioned stimulus) is paired with a stimulus that elicits an automatic biological response (i.e., unconditioned stimulus) until an association between the two is learnt. Learning has occurred (i.e., conditioned response) when the presentation of the CS elicits a response without the US present.
     • Operant Conditioning
       • Voluntary Behaviours
   • Non-Associative Learning
     • Habituation occurs in response to mild stimuli, sensitization in response to stronger stimuli.
   • Sensory memory
   • Short Term Memory
   • Long Term Memory
     • Declarative
       • Semantic
         • Autobiographical Memory
       • Episodic
     • Nondeclarative
       • Procedural
       • Classical Conditioning
       • Priming

2. Consolidation DNA to RNA

   • Learning and memory involves changes at the synapse - The strengthening of connections across synapses so that they can be reactivated at a later date.
   • Long-term potentiation moves AMPA receptors and creates changes to the dendritic spines.
   • Consolidation makes these synaptic connections more stable. Strong synaptic activity, like those that occur during LTP, will initiate an expression of genes.
   • Reactivation and Reconsolidation
     • Elizabeth Loftus
     • Vulnerable to change
     • Memory retrieval facilitates the reconsolidation of the memory that can actually strengthen it. But as the memory is now ‘active again’ the memory can be altered.
     • This is less likely to occur for older and stronger memories.

3. Gene Expression:

   • A single neuron contains around 50 billion proteins. RNA dictates the exact proteins that are present in a neuron. These proteins perform basic functions but also govern how neurons respond to inputs. “The physical basis of memory lies in the learning-related growth or remodeling of synaptic connections in a protein synthesis-dependent fashion.”

4. Fear: Amygdala

   • Information about the CS and UCS converge in the lateral nucleus of the amygdala - The central nucleus of the amygdala initiates the CR (freezing) by contacting output areas in the hypothalamus and periaqueductal gray
   • Fear: extinguishing
     • - Exposure to CS without subsequent UCS reduces CRs - Extinction does not generalize outside of training situation: Importance of context (e.g. home vs. experimental cage), Hippocampus manages context, Hippocampal lesions produce generalized extinction - Extinction is not forgetting: Extinction training strengthens association between context and CS (e.g. experimental but not home cage with tone), Extinguished CS inhibits responding

5. Structures involved in memory:

   • Temporal Lobe
   • Association Cortex
   • Prefrontal Cortex
   • Basal Ganglia

6. Factors that impact:

   • Stress
   • Aging and memory