PSYC 110 Lecture Notes - Lecture 19: World Memory Championships, Kainic Acid, Actin
27 Jun 2018
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World Memory Championships - an hour to memorize random numbers, 5 mins/30 mins to
remember binary digits, remember playing cards, words, names & faces, historical dates
They tested memory experts for their IQ -> they were not geniuses, average IQ but they use
particular memorization techniques that anyone can learn such as elaborative encoding, memory
palaces
Memorization system existed prewriting -> Aristotle and other philosophers were against writing
because it would lower memory
Long-Term Potentiation:
The biomolecular process that your neurons go through as you learn.
How connections between neurons are strengthened through repeated pairing/firing
Neurons that fire together, wire together … through LTP
Vesicles are filled with neurotransmitters
Repeated firing leads to a stronger neural network -> change in graph, it gets taller and wider
Change in synapse - more receptors, more vesicles, larger voltage so it gets bigger, width is more,
thickness of spine, number of neurotransmitters -> this happens in rote memorization . All of this is
to amp up the cell response. The purpose of the calcium ion is to make the long-term potentiation
happen. This connection is like a marriage - become fatter, more friends, more tasks. Memory
involves hundreds of biomolecular processes. Changes in synaptic strength that supports LTP evolve
in stages that can identified by the unique molecular processes that support each stage
Generation
Stabilization
Consolidation
Maintenance
Change in shape: We feel like the receptors are blocked in space but it is not true, receptors can be
passed in and out of the membrane. Post synaptic density holds thing and it is loose and fluid but
through LTP, it gets denser and becomes difficult for receptors to move around so it holds it in a
robust fashion. The spine is thickening and the width of the membrane is increasing - this leads to
space for more receptors and thus, needs lesser effort for it to wire and more robust firing. The
protein that helps this happen is called Actin (actors doing a costume change - protein that is long
and holds everything in place and when you change the nature of the actin, it widens everything out
and holds the new receptors in place)
Thin spines learn and the thick spines remember
Three receptors - work with glutamate (excitatory, makes the cell more likely to fire) and helps in
learning and memory. 3 receptors accept glutamate but react in different ways
Kainate: Shifts LTP into high gear through a recycling process - Kai is like a race drive and
he riles up the LTP process but on the other side, there's Nate that hugs trees to help with the
recycling process
AMPA: It lets calcium and sodium in and calcium is the engine to get the cell to start
other chemical processes. AMPA mostly lets in sodium. They are the most fluid and try to amp
up the cells response (like Mountain Dew). They are constantly moving in and out of the
postsynaptic membrane. But actin makes the membrane dense so AMPA get stuck in there.
AMPA is the fuel of learning and memory.
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
World memory championships - an hour to memorize random numbers, 5 mins/30 mins to remember binary digits, remember playing cards, words, names & faces, historical dates. They tested memory experts for their iq -> they were not geniuses, average iq but they use particular memorization techniques that anyone can learn such as elaborative encoding, memory palaces. Memorization system existed prewriting -> aristotle and other philosophers were against writing because it would lower memory. The biomolecular process that your neurons go through as you learn. How connections between neurons are strengthened through repeated pairing/firing. Neurons that fire together, wire together through ltp. Repeated firing leads to a stronger neural network -> change in graph, it gets taller and wider. Change in synapse - more receptors, more vesicles, larger voltage so it gets bigger, width is more, thickness of spine, number of neurotransmitters -> this happens in rote memorization . All of this is to amp up the cell response.
