Memory (Episodic and Declarative)
13 important questions on Memory (Episodic and Declarative)
What 3 factors could underlie individual differences in episodic memory?
e.g. volume differences in hippocampus in ageing
2. Inherited differences: genes
---> controlling brain development, synaptic plasticity and neurogenesis
3. Differences in strategies
How can reinstatement of spatial context (i.e. reentering the place where an event took place) improve episodic memory?
---> therefore reinstatement of spatial context may help to retrieve other elements of an episodic event experienced within that spatial context
Example
Police often take witnesses back to the scene of the crime because it will reactivate neurons associated with the event = the witness will remember details better
---> spatial context acts as a scaffold for episodic memory
During encoding a memory, what does the hippocampus create?
---> It allows events to be distinguished based on where they occurred
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How does creating many spatial contexts generally increase memory?
---> Similar events (overlapping people, ideas, objects) can be distinguished better by being bound to different contextual representations
---> Reinstatement of spatial context may help to retrieve other elements of an episodic event experienced within that spatial context
Who demonstrated that episodic memory is hippocampus dependent?
- investigated 3 patients with anterograde amnesia (amnesia for episodic memory)
- in all 3 cases, there was bilateral hippocampal pathology
- despite this, the patients still attended mainstream schools and attained levels of speech and language competence, literacy, and factual knowledge that are within the low average to average range.
---> The findings provide support for the view that the episodic and semantic components of cognitive memory are partly dissociable, with only the episodic component being fully dependent on the hippocampus.
What are the networks involved in episodic memory?
- Hippocampus
- Hippocampal formation (entorhinal cortex, parahippocampal cortices)
- Posterior Cingulate/Retrosplenial cortex
- Prefrontal cortex e.g. medial prefrontal
- Parietal cortex eg. precuneus (‘the mind’s eye’)
The hippocampal formation is typically the first region to degenerate in which disease?
(So it’s not surprising that the first notable symptom of dementia is loss of episodic or spatial memory)
Who explained why episodic memory is worse in older people? What was their reason?
---> hippocampal volume increases (up to a certain age) and then decreases
= a smaller hippocampal volume is associated with worse episodic memory
What experiment supports the findings of Levine et al (2002)?
---> neural and cognitive factors completely mediated age differences in episodic memory
---> whereas less hippocampal volume directly affected episodic memory
= Hippocampal volume may mediate aging-related individual differences in episodic memory
What other study demonstrated that met carriers have worse episodic memory?
---> recognition memory task
Is there any brain activity higher in homozygous val carriers than met carriers?
If so, where?
- Right hippocampus
- Right parahippocampal
- Bilateral parahippocampal
= a specific type of BDNF (val or met) polymorphism results in a specific type of brain activity in the hippocampus
Who studied the consequences of carrying the met polymorphism?
---> small study
---> participants either val/val or val/met (no met/met)
Results:
The hippocampi in val/met carriers is 11% smaller than in val/val carriers
What experiment demonstrates that individual differences in episodic recollection correlate with cross-regional activity in the brain's 'recollection network'
---> Measured 3 quite different episodic recollection tasks
Results
Correlations are seen between:
a) Recollection success
b) Degree to which core regions of a recollection network showed task-specific increases in connectivity with other regions
Those core regions included:
the hippocampus, medial prefrontal cortex, posterior parietal cortex (angular gyrus), & posterior cingulate cortex
(see slide 5, p.7 lecture notes)
What is the summary of this lecture?
2) Different brain structures support different, if overlapping, strategic approaches
3) Hippocampal variation is linked to variation in episodic memory (e.g. in ageing)
4) Variation in episodic memory is probably tied to variation in ‘talking to’ other parts of the brain that the hippocampus is strongly connected to (e.g. parahippocampal, prefrontal parietial and retrosplenial cortices)
5) Some of the variation in hippocampal and other cortical regions owes to genes controlling brain plasticity/growth
The question on the page originate from the summary of the following study material:
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