Long Term Memory

1. Long Term Memory Scott Betournay

2. What is Long Term Memory? • Long term memory is very large! • It is robust. • Information can be encoded, stored, and retrieved.

4. Initiation of a Long Term Memory: Sensory Reception

6. Pathway to Working Memory Epinephrine Norepinephrine

7. The Diencephalon is…

8. Pathway to Working Memory

10. Pathway to Long Term Memory

12. Types of Long Term Memory • Procedural: memory for skills and procedure • Declarative: memory for facts!

13. Declarative Memory Is Further Broken Down: • Semantic: words, concepts, information that can be described and applied Episodic: personal experiences and events

14. Why Mention These Types of Long Term Memory? • Different types of memory are encoded in different ways. • Episodic Memory is stored much easier than semantic. • Some people have lost the function of a certain type of Long Term Memory.

15. Amnesia • Anterograde: patient is unable to recall events occurring after the onset of brain damage • Retrograde: memories are lost from before the onset of amnesia • Patient H. M. – severed hippocampus and amygdala caused anterograde amnesia

16. Redefining the Procedural Memory Pathway • The hippocampus is not needed to process Procedural Memories. Long-term procedural memories are stored in the basal ganglia, cerebellum and motor cortices

17. Cellular Mechanisms of Long Term Memory • Strengthen existing synapses. • Create new synapses. • Grow new neurons • Strong evidence from primate studies (Gould et al (1999).

18. Long Term PotentiationA Molecular Mechanism for Memory • Changes in the structure of neurons due to increased use. • Cuses both the pre and post-synaptic neuron to become more efficient.

19. Long Term Potentiation

20. References • Barsalou L. Cognitive Psychology. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, NJ. 1992 • Beatty J. The Human Brain. Sage Publications, Inc. 2001 • http://www.humboldt.edu/~morgan/skil_s01.htm • http://www.ipd.hk-r.se/bai/iea329/CognitivTheory/sld002.htm • http://psych.fullerton.edu/swillis/ltp.html • http://undergrad.ahs.uwaterloo.ca/kin356/ltm/ltm.htm • Jensen E. Brain Based Learning. The Brain Store. San Diego CA. 2000 • Kandel E et al. Essentials of Neural Science and Behavior. Appleton & Lange, CT. 1995

21. References • Marieb E. N. Human Anatomy and Physiology. Benjamin Cummings. 2001 • Tulving E, Craik F ed. The Oxford Handbook of Memory. Markowitsch H. “Neuroanatomy of Memory” Oxford University Press 2000 • Sharp P. Brain Mechanisms of Perception and Memory. “The Role of the Hippocampus in Learning and Memory” Oxford University Press, New York. 1993 • Wolfe P. Brain Matters. Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. Alexandria, VA. 2001

22. How do we encode information into Long Term Memory? • The more we process information, the better it is remembered. • The longer we are exposed to information, the better we remember it. • The more we rehearse a piece of information, the higher its probability of being remembered

23. Rehearsal • Elaborative rehearsal: processing and mental energy devoted to rehearsing information. • Maintenance rehearsal: devoting just enough mental resource to keep information from being lost

24. Elaboration • The way in which we process stimuli influences our ability to encode. • Intention, in and of itself does not help us learn. • Depth of processing, or thinking about what we learn, improves our ability to encode information.

25. Generation of Information • We remember best the information that we generate ourselves. (could give example here)…

26. Imagery • If we can visualize and picture a concept, then we are likely to remember it better. (This is why abstract concepts are difficult to remember)…

27. Organization Memory for information improves when we have knowledge to organize it Hierarchical organization is particularly useful for remembering large amounts of information.

28. How is Memory Studied? • Human patients with brain structural abnormalities • Disease • Injuries • Animal models to study causation • MRI, CAT, PET scans