NEUROSCI 101 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Neocortex, Donepezil, Cupcake
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2-11-16
Ch. 13 Neural Basis of Memory (con’t.)
Pre-Lecture Questions:
● I trained a rat for several days to learn to find a platform in a water maze task until it was
very good at the task, then I gave the rat 2 days off from training. On the 3rd day I gave
the rat an NMDA receptor blocker prior to testing it on the task? Would its performance
be better, worse or the same as on the last day of training?
○ Since the NMDA receptor is responsible for learning, the rat has already learned
the location of the platform. Blocking the NMDA receptors in the hippocampus
will deplete long-term knowledge, but won’t affect the rat’s ability to locate the
platform since it’s old knowledge.
○ AMPA receptors
● How is LTP like learning (3 lines of reasoning)?
○correlational observations - time course of LTP similar for memory formation
○somatic interventions - pharmacological treatments that block LTP impair
learning
○behavioral interventions - training an animal in a memory task can induce LTP
● What new memory types could HM still acquire?
○ implicit/nondeclarative memory - HM could still be primed (neocortex) or classical
conditioning (amygdala, cerebellum)
○ working memory - very short time, could repeat back stream of digits
○ procedural memory - HM could still perform the mirror-tracing task after learning
○episodic memory - could still remember childhood events prior to the
hippocampal surgery (explicit memory defined in medial temporal lobe and
diencephalon)
○some of HM’s amygdala was removed, but still able to remember emotionally-
related events such as 9/11 and the relationship b/w him and his researcher
(example of classical conditioning)
Impact of HM
● provided support for distinction b/w short-term (working) and long-term memory
○ distinguished that LTM was not stored in the hippocampus, since HM could still
retain older memories that occurred prior to his surgery
● provided support of distinction b/w implicit and explicit memory
○ since HM had normal implicit memory but only small traces of explicit memory,
there was a distinction
● highlighted importance of medial temporal lobe structures to the formation of long-
term explicit memory v retrieval
● first evidence of multiple memory systems w/ different neural substrates
How is LTP in hippocampus related to memory overall?
● encoding
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