Summary, Neuronal Networks and Behaviour; Memory,
cognition & Emotion
Lecture 1, Hippocampal memory
Lecture overview – Chapter 30 Purves 5th ed.
Memory
• Classification of memory: temporal and declarative/non- declarative
Declarative memories
• Lesion evidence from patients
• fMRI studies in humans
• Spatial memory and hippocampal volume
• Hippocampal disease and memory
• Spatial memory & rodent hippocampus: lesion evidence and hippocampal neuron activity
• Long-term memory storage in the brain
An experiment
Memory and the hippocampus are not only linked to each other in the matter of what
happens in time but there is also a spatial component, time and space are interlinked.
Memory palace: try to remember dull stuff in order
- You can make this easier by giving it a special component (imagine all components in
your own house/ or make it ridiculous: a salmon smoking a cigar)
Learning: process by which new information is acquired by the nervous system and gives rise
to changes in behaviour. (we learn because we want to survive)
Memory: encoding, storage and retrieval of learnt information.
(working memory→ recognizing a phone number to dial it in)
Diseases of long-term memory:
Anterograde amnesia: inability to form new memories
Retrograde amnesia: inability to recall prior events and memories
,Major categories
Semantic
Declarative memory: storage and retrieval of information that is available to our
consciousness and can largely be expressed by language.
- In animals, a type of declarative memory tested in the lab could be spatial (“where”)
or even an episodic-like recollection (learn them something) (“what/where/when”)
Nondeclarative memory: often called ‘procedural memory’ that is often not available to
consciousness and covers many memory processes which are non-verbalised.
*Semantic memory is conscious long-term memory for meaning, understanding, and
conceptual facts about the world.
What role does the hippocampus play in declarative memories?
How has the hippocampus been studied? in order:
The hippocampus is connected to the entorhinal cortex.
,Lesion studies into memory: Patient H.M.
Both temporal lobes including the hippocampus were removed to prevent seizures in the
patient. The result:
Severe anterograde amnesia: Could not make new long-term memories
Surgeries like this are still done but now only the specific area of the brain where seizures
occur is removed and not such a big part of the brain.
Procedural learning (motor memories) and memory are intact.
- He had still his old memories> retrograde intact
→ declarative memories are affected
, Lesion studies into memory: patient K.C.
- Horizontal plane MRI section showing damage to hippocampal and parahippocampal
brain regions.
- Procedural learning (motor memories) and memory are intact.
- Anterograde and retrograde episodic memory (what/where/when) is severely
impaired. (declarative memory)
- However, retrograde ‘semantic’ memory (general knowledge) is still intact.
Lesion studies into memory:
Movie of British man with severe short-term memory problems from hippocampal damage
caused by herpes infection (the man with the 30 sec memory)
Live in the now
- This man is stuck in the now
- He uses the same sentences
- His thoughts are the same constantly
Hippocampal damage is selective for declarative memories, but leaves procedural memories
intact.
cognition & Emotion
Lecture 1, Hippocampal memory
Lecture overview – Chapter 30 Purves 5th ed.
Memory
• Classification of memory: temporal and declarative/non- declarative
Declarative memories
• Lesion evidence from patients
• fMRI studies in humans
• Spatial memory and hippocampal volume
• Hippocampal disease and memory
• Spatial memory & rodent hippocampus: lesion evidence and hippocampal neuron activity
• Long-term memory storage in the brain
An experiment
Memory and the hippocampus are not only linked to each other in the matter of what
happens in time but there is also a spatial component, time and space are interlinked.
Memory palace: try to remember dull stuff in order
- You can make this easier by giving it a special component (imagine all components in
your own house/ or make it ridiculous: a salmon smoking a cigar)
Learning: process by which new information is acquired by the nervous system and gives rise
to changes in behaviour. (we learn because we want to survive)
Memory: encoding, storage and retrieval of learnt information.
(working memory→ recognizing a phone number to dial it in)
Diseases of long-term memory:
Anterograde amnesia: inability to form new memories
Retrograde amnesia: inability to recall prior events and memories
,Major categories
Semantic
Declarative memory: storage and retrieval of information that is available to our
consciousness and can largely be expressed by language.
- In animals, a type of declarative memory tested in the lab could be spatial (“where”)
or even an episodic-like recollection (learn them something) (“what/where/when”)
Nondeclarative memory: often called ‘procedural memory’ that is often not available to
consciousness and covers many memory processes which are non-verbalised.
*Semantic memory is conscious long-term memory for meaning, understanding, and
conceptual facts about the world.
What role does the hippocampus play in declarative memories?
How has the hippocampus been studied? in order:
The hippocampus is connected to the entorhinal cortex.
,Lesion studies into memory: Patient H.M.
Both temporal lobes including the hippocampus were removed to prevent seizures in the
patient. The result:
Severe anterograde amnesia: Could not make new long-term memories
Surgeries like this are still done but now only the specific area of the brain where seizures
occur is removed and not such a big part of the brain.
Procedural learning (motor memories) and memory are intact.
- He had still his old memories> retrograde intact
→ declarative memories are affected
, Lesion studies into memory: patient K.C.
- Horizontal plane MRI section showing damage to hippocampal and parahippocampal
brain regions.
- Procedural learning (motor memories) and memory are intact.
- Anterograde and retrograde episodic memory (what/where/when) is severely
impaired. (declarative memory)
- However, retrograde ‘semantic’ memory (general knowledge) is still intact.
Lesion studies into memory:
Movie of British man with severe short-term memory problems from hippocampal damage
caused by herpes infection (the man with the 30 sec memory)
Live in the now
- This man is stuck in the now
- He uses the same sentences
- His thoughts are the same constantly
Hippocampal damage is selective for declarative memories, but leaves procedural memories
intact.
