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Biological Basis of Memory
Karl Lashley’s Studies:
o Searched for a localized memory
o Believed that memory was
area.
o Removed parts of rat’s cerebral
contained the memory of the maze
o Found that maze-learning in rats was distributed
or
– specific memory stored in a specific
but found no
area
the brain
Richard Thompson’s Studies:
o Thought that
was changed after
conditioning a rabbit to blink to a tone.
o Removing this area caused the rabbit to no longer
to a tone but only reflexively.
Shows
memory.
o This did not work for
behaviors like running a maze, which seem to be
o Reflexive Behaviors are
in the cerebellum
Biological Basis of Memory:
o fMRI shows that when people memorized the label “dog” with the sound of a bark the
cortex activated when they retrieved it.
o Those memorized the label “dog” to a picture activated their
cortex when they retrieved it.
o Retrieving a memory
the sensory area of the cortex that was
involved in the
perception of the event. (See images on pg. 268)
Eric Kandel’s Aplysia Sea Snail Study:
o Aplysia—a sea snail was used to study how memories can change
o As the reflex is learned, the amount of the
and the
branching of
increases, allowing the circuit to communicate more
easily.
o Squirted it with water followed by an
that
conditioned
it to withdrawal its gills next time it was squirted.
o This changed the
neuron circuit in the snail.
o
of the neuron changed with
in the amount of
the
produced by the neuron.
o
of the neuron changed with the number of interconnecting
and axon
increasing allowing for more
communication pointes (synapses).
Long Term Potentiation:
o Two possible changes should occur in the


2. ____________experiment shows this.
in forming memories.
of neurons in the brain could change
of the neurons could change.
 Believed to be the neural basis of
and
Amnesia – Severe Memory Loss – 3 Major Types:
1. Retrograde amnesia—inability to remember past
information;
common after head injury
Reason for this is it may disrupt:
o Memory
– gradual, physical process of converting a long-term
memory to a stable and enduring memory code.
o If disturbed before the process is
, memory could be lost.
2. Anterograde amnesia—inability to form
memories; related to
damage
o Shows that
must be used in the encoding of new memories and
them from STM to LTM.
o Implicit memories like
memories do still occur showing that these
may not involve the hippocampus but knowing they are there (
memory) does not work showing the hippocampus is involved in these.
3. Infantile Amnesia – Inability to recall events from the first few
of life.
Possible Reasons for this:
o Too many differences between the world of an
and ours for us to be able to make
connections or
cues to retrieve them (
specificity
principle).
o
is still developing so they cannot form new
but
they can make procedural memories.
Parts of the Brain involved in Memory
The Patient H.M. Showed that shows that
lobes and
memory depends upon the
does not
Why did H.M. show both types of explicit memory deficits?
Damage to the hippocampus would result in the inability to form new
but the ability to remember the skills of
memories
memories,
Aging & Memory:
o Studies have found that the ability to recall
information, unaided by clues, declines
with age,
o But the ability to
new information, as in a multiple-choice question, does
not.
o Elderly may need more
to retrieve memories but still can do as well as a young
person.
Culture & Memory:
o Levy and Langer study of cultural views of aging show that society’s expectation that older people
will have poorer memories can be a
prophecy.
o In cultures where that is not believed (Asia) the elderly show memories
as the young.
o