Questions on Memory and Brain Functions

Match the following characteristics to their types of memory. The answers can be used more than once.

The hippocampus is associated mainly with memory, in particualr long-term meomry. When an individual is with others, it is the hippocampus that allows the person to remember past memories of the ones he or she is with. Being phoned by friends to come have pizza with them, activates the limbic system, the hippocampus, and allows for the person to think back and determine if he or she would want to go have pizza with that set of friends. In Alzheimer's disease, the hippocampus is affected and the person is unable to remember certain memories or becomes confused. The hippocampous and Broca's area are not the only portion of the brain that are being stimulated. Along with those, the hypothalamus is working

Hippocampus is a small, curved region, which exists in both hemispheres of the brain and plays a vital role in emotions, learning and acquisition of new information. It also contributes majorly to long term memory, which is permanent information stored in the brain. Although long term memory is the last information that can be forgotten, its impairment has become very common nowadays. The dysfunction is exemplified by many neurological disorders such as amnesia. There are two types of amnesia, anterograde and retrograde. Anterograde amnesia is inability in forming new information, while retrograde refers to the loss of the past memory. As suggested by Cipolotti and Bird (2006), hippocampus’s lesions are

After getting his medial temporal lobe removed due to severe seizures, H.M. was no longer able to form new memories, facts or events and just like Leonard, he could spend hours with someone, take a break and come back to that same person an hour later and have no recollection. H.M. was aware of his poor memory and described his life as constantly waking from a dream he couldn’t remember. The studies revolving his anterograde amnesia proved the formation ability of new fact and event-based memories depend on the medial frontal lobe but that other types of memory and cognitive functions do not. Research on H.M.’s condition somewhat reinforces the above stated examples in the movie for the most part except Lenny being able to remember the incident responsible for causing his condition, people rarely remember what actually caused them to have amnesia. While it is not known if Leonard’s hippocampus was intact or not for sure, it is still suggested that he was able to form a few new personal memories after the injury. There is also an example of perceptual motor skills, which are defined as learned movement patterns guided by sensory inputs, in the case of Leonard and H.M. their procedural memory was left intact, which means that they were able to learn how to do things and habits, because the hippocampus is

Emotions are what makes us home sapiens; they are made possible through the limbic system, the limbic system is in the temporal lobe (Boeree, 2009). The limbic system is made up of many different parts of the brain. The amygdala is the center of emotional processing it receives input from other brain functions, like memory and attention (Boeree, 2009). The amygdala is the reason we have multiple emotional responses, like love, fear, anger and sexual desire (Boeree, 2009). The hippocampus is another constituent of the limbic system that directs info to the amygdala (Boeree, 2009). The hippocampus works as a team with the amygdala (Boeree, 2009). The connection between the hippocampus and amygdala may very well be the origination of strong emotions elicited by individual memories which would explain emotional responses to distressing memories (Boeree, 2009).

The medial temporal lobe (MTL) has long been known to be involved in different kinds of memory processes. The MTL is a region of the brain comprised of the hippocampus and the entorhinal, perirhinal and parahippocampal cortices.1 Lesions to the MTL results in anterograde amnesia. Patients lose both episodic memory, the ability to remember autobiographical events, as well as recognition memory2. Previous episodic memories are not generally lost with MTL lesions, with the exception of some experiences immediately preceding the amnesic event. Patients with hippocampal lesions do not lose the ability to form procedural memories, which give people the ability to habitually perform procedures.

These two regions hold the most data behind them to make this assumption that they do in fact participate in encoding long-term memory. The amygdala on the other hand does in fact show to encode long-term memory, but more so is a way to improve encoding performance. By solidifying an emotional response to a memory is a significant way shown by the research to tie information into long-term memory and improve encoding performance. Another performance enhancing mechanism brought up in Blemenfeld’s research was the use of repetitiveness to encode information needed into long-term memory. In the end, by gathering and analyzing the research of this grouping of studies I was able to gather enough data to make these hypothesized assumptions from the regions chosen to look over and feel confident in my

The cerebrum neurons are fit for transforming, it reaction to experience. The neural pliancy gives the premise to memory, the territory of the mind that commitments to memory and having a real part in maintenance of memory are the transient

The hippocampus, it is part of a system that directs many bodily functions: the limbic system. This system is located in the brain's medial temporal lobe, near the center of the brain. The hippocampus is involved in the storage of long-term memory, which includes all past knowledge and experiences. . Damage to the hippocampus or its nerve connections can cause amnesia (inability to learn and then recall new information). Children with amnesia are unable to form new long-term memories, and they forget information soon after they hear or see it.

Students were an average of 20 years old with a standard deviation of 2.44. About 46.5 per cent of the participants were in their second year of university with a few students in their third or fourth year. Out of the 142 participants, 26 were female and 78 were male. Not all students reported their information, and as a result, there may be discrepancies. Since this experiment was a requirement for the Cognitive Psychology course, the participants were not specifically selected for the study.

Scoville performed a surgery to stop HM’s seizures, but it was later found out that there was damage to the memory. Milner decided to look into the structure of memory, the structures of the brain (hippocampus), and both anterograde and retrograde amnesia.

Limbic system is involved in many emotions essential for survival such as fear, anger and felling of pleasure. The hippocampus is the limbic system structure that plays the role in memory forming storing and retrieval. It is involved in connecting emotions and senses to memories. . The hippocampus sends the memories to the cerebral hemisphere for long term storage and also has a role in retrieval of memories when needed.. Patients with damaged hippocampus might lose the ability to form new memories.

These rats demonstrated issues with getting around the maze. It was concluded that hippocampus was involved in recognition memory and spatial memory, these memories are also called recall memories. Injuries in this part of the brain make it impossible to form new declarative memories. Which is also shown by H.M.

First, studies on H.M.’s brain found that memory is primarily a psychological function. Although post-surgery H.M. struggled with remembering everyday events and performed poorly on neuropsychological tests, he still maintained his perceptual and cognitive abilities and was able to even increase his IQ years after the surgery had been completed (Eichenbaum, 2013). Second, amnesia does not seem to effect short-term or working memory. As stated earlier, H.M. was able to keep much of his short term memory following surgery. This was demonstrated in his ability to repeat phone numbers back and carry on a conversation with others normally, until the conversation was directed towards details of his past. H.M. even showed that he could learn new skills, leading researchers to believe that the hippocampus may also be important in contextual learning. The third finding that came from studying H.M. was that amnesia patients show a deficiency in both declarative and episodic memory, thus impairing their ability to remember a single event or recall certain facts. Also, researchers found that the hippocampus is one of the primary structures of the brain that is responsible for the maintaining and processing memories. And finally, studies on H.M. provided information in how the hippocampus must also be responsible for the lasting consolidation of memories, despite time frames or

I picked this article because I was fascinated by H.M.’s case and I think memory is a very interesting topic in psychology because its one of the things that defines and makes us human. Psychological movies have always been my thing and when I stumble upon movies about one of the characters losing their memory or already have memory loss, it intrigues me that actual people have actually experienced memory loss for different reasons. It’s crazy how one can lose their declarative memory but can still have their non-declarative memory, because most people would think that this particular person has no long term memory yet they may still be able to remember the things they love to do and be classically conditioned if its necessary.