Underlying Neurobiological Processes

When we recall these memories, we re-consolidate them by reactivating the neutrons that compose our memory, which allows us to create new connections. This encourages learning by strengthening these connections and allowing them.

* Consolidation- hypothetical process involving gradual conversion of information into memory codes stored in long term memory.

Memory retrieval skills gradually deteriorate over a person’s lifespan. It becomes harder to remember events and recall what was learned. Forgetting something doesn’t mean the memory is gone, it’s just a retrieval failure. Inside Out displays what happens to long term memories when they are forgotten. We see that the glassy memory orbs darken and desaturate in color, and ‘mind workers’ regularly clean out the old memories. This is quite similar to pruning, as it shows how not all memories retain the same duration. There are ways, however, to improve retrieval. Professors McDermott and Roediger suggest, “Relating new information to what one already knows, forming mental images, and creating associations among information that needs to be remembered. (McDermott & Roediger,

Consolidation is the process by which an acquired memory is stabilized (Mastin, 2010). It begins when information is “bound into a memory trace by the hippocampus and related structures in the medial temporal lobes and diencephalon” (Nadel & Moscovitch, 1997, p. 217). This involves long term

Maren S. Seeking a spotless mind: extinction, deconsolidation, and erasure of fear memory. Neuron. 2011;70(5):830-845.

Additionally, to further support these theories, researchers tend to conduct studies on the famous patient case, HM, to propose the consolidation deficit theory, in which those with amnesia cannot turn short-term memories into long-term memories (Dewar et al., 2010). However, researchers Dewar, Della Sala, Beschin, and Cowan (2010), mentioned that HM’s case does not fully explain why a patient with anterograde amnesia has the ability to get better at cognitive tasks despite being unable to recall having performed those tasks at a previous time. On the same hand, Duff, Wszalek, Tranel, and Cohen (2008) mentioned that most individuals with anterograde amnesia experience heightened intelligence, attention, skill, and reasoning levels (procedural memory).

By doing so is finding support for hypothesis, “AA reflects a failure to consolidate short-lived encoded information into a durable form of memory” (Chen and Wyble,2016). In other words, AA shows brief information does not become a permanent and stable memory, stored in long-term memory. In order, find supporting evidence the authors performed 5 experiments. The first experiment tested consisted of elimination of AA by having participants report an attribute of the stimulus instead of the location, in order to separate the dependence of AA and location. The results suggested location information of the target was automatically stored. Experiment two tested, if AA only occurred because of the familiarity and repetition of targets However, despite eliminating the familiarities and repetition of targets AA still occurred. Lastly, the last three experiments were identical, but with changes in variables and tested the hypothesis. Experiment 3a results showed a weakening in AA by forcing the participants to consolidate the key attribute into memory. Experiment 3b showed the weakening in 3a was caused by having participants maintaining attributes in memory after delayed tasks. Lastly, 3c provided support the previous experiments in which participants were able to find the

Findings in recent studies that are using stress-enhanced fear learning in rats, developed and tested in Rau et al., as a model for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder has a lot of potential. The model allows for scientist and researchers to learn more about what is happening in the brain as a result of traumatic situations. By pinpointing these molecular and cellular mechanisms in rats, we are able to apply the information to humans who have PTSD. Continuing work on this topic gives the ability to learn more about how to treat PTSD and offers the potential for therapeutic

Context-dependent memory is the concept that things are often best recalled in the same environment that they were learned. Smith and Vela (2001) provide four hypotheses as to how context-dependent memory works. They appear as follows; “reinstatement” is the idea that memory is better when testing occurs in a reinstated environment as opposed to a different environment (Smith & Vela, 2001) and this is true across all studies (Smith & Vela, 2001), “outshining” implies that non contextual cues when used for guiding memory often diminish or eliminate the effects of contextual cues (Smith & Vela, 2001), “Overshadowing” is the concept that “if one’s incidental environmental context is suppressed during learning, then environmental information will not be encoded and stored in memory, thereby reducing or eliminating effects of experimenter-manipulated environments on memory” (Smith & Vela, 2001), and finally “mental reinstatement”

Glial Cells (three types): Make up about 90% of the brain’s total cells. They also supply nutrients and oxygen, perform clean up tasks, and insulate one neuron from another so that their neural messages are not scrambled.

Some scientists believe that parts of long term memory are permanent while others will eventually weaken over time. (3) Long term memory can be divided into three sections: procedural memory, declarative memory, and remote memory. Procedural memory includes motor skills such as learning how to ride a bike or how to drive a car. "Such memories are slow to acquire but more resistant to change or loss." (4) Declarative memory is used to remember facts, such as names, dates and places. It is easy to learn but also easy to lose. Finally there is episodic memory, which is the record of events that a person stores throughout his or her experience. Recent studies show that these events, as soon as they occur, are sent to a temporary part of the brain called the hippocampus, and that over time they are moved to the neocortex for permanent storage. (5).

may cause a person to be more susceptible to invasive memories such as ADHD, damage to the prefrontal cortex, or depression. Moreover, even if episodic memory is impaired, “conditioning and perceptual fluency associated with the experience may remain”, (Anderson) for example, producing fear of something without deliberately recalling

After a new memory is learnt, it enters the process of encoding during which the memory is labile and capable of disruption until it becomes stabilised over a period of time (Nader & Einarsson, 2010; Nader et al, 2000). This process is called consolidation and originally consisted of the theory that once stabilised in the brain, it remains fixed (Suzuki et al, 2004). This theory has been rebutted by the acceptance of reconsolidation, a theory that imposes the ideology that when memories are retrieved, through similar experiences (Lee, 2009), they become labile until,

Fawcett, Lawrence & Taylor (2006) focused on whether deliberate forgetting of certain memories would impact the probability of recovering it later from long-term memory. The participants were fifteen females and five male undergraduate students who

Previous research displays a relationship between defensive behavior and fear, anxiety and stress. Several animal models have been developed to model aspects of anxiety and stress related disorders. Of these, self-enhanced fear learning (SEFL) is based on foot shock fear conditioning, but is a maladaptive form of hyperreactive fear, modeling Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). In the model, animals are exposed to a severe stressor in one context, changing how a future mild stressor is processed in a distinct context. The enhancement in fear learning is not caused by generalization between the two contexts. Our laboratory uses the SEFL model to study the neurobiological mechanisms driving PTSD.