Specialised brain areas

Specialised brain areas

1. Anterior Cingulate Cortex (ACC) and prefrontal cortex involved in WM

2. Superior Frontal Cortex involved in WM, Courtney et al (1998)

3. . Hippocampus is not responsible for storing LTM but necessary for consolidation (result from HM) may develop map of where memories are stored

   • Permanent storage of information tends to be in regions of cortex where first processed and held in short-term memory. e.g., visual cortex for visual stimulus Some patients with cortical damage loose memory for specific categories of objects, animals, tools,
   • Consolidation
     • Hippocamous

4. Retrieval

   • Hippocampus is necessary for location and retrieval of detailed (episodic and contextual) memory, not less precise ones (Williams et al., 2010)
   • May involve dialogue between hippocampus and cortex Retrieving from LTM causes memory to be temporarily unstable and susceptible to disruption before reconsolidation. Leads to Distorted and false memories

5. Neural activity of hippocampus drives cortical plasticity cortex (Wierzynski et al, 2009)

   • Hippocampus is critical for the laying down long-term memories in the cerebral cortex.
     • Memories are gradually established as circuits in the neocortical are reorganised under the influence of the hippocampus (CA1
       • Sleep is known to be important for consolidation of learning. Especially during slow-wave as opposed to rapid eye movement (REM) sleep
         • Co-ordinated activity is found across cortico-hippocampal circuits during sleep (also awake). Much greater in slow wave as opposed to rapid eye movement sleep