* Your assessment is very important for improving the workof artificial intelligence, which forms the content of this project
Download Memories and your Brain
Survey
Document related concepts
Transcript
Memories and your Brain Psychology 3717 Introduction • Look, your memories MUST be in your brain • Somewhere….. • Questions arise though like umm where are they stored? • How are they stored? • Is it just new connections or something else? Don’t be afraid, it is just a bit of rote memorization • Unless you know Greek and Latin… • Brain is organized in, at best, a semi random pattern • Some of the names are confusing – Substantia negra – Zona inserta • Some make a teeny bit of sense – Hippocampus – amygdila A few key terms • • • • • • • Anterior Caudal Dorsal Frontal Inferior Lateral Medial • • • • • • Posterior Rostral Sagittal Superior Ventral dorsal Time for a diagram! Some important Subcortical structures • • • • • • Hippocampus Amygdila Thalamus Hypothalamus Nucleus accumbens Medula The cells • There are two basic types of cells in the brain, neurons and glial cells • Neurons do the transmitting • Glia do the support functions • There are many types of neurons and glial cells, but we don’t have to be too concerned about those Fall in to the gap • Between neurons there are teensy gaps • The synapse • Neurotransmitters go across the gap to cause the next neuron to fire • Why not direct connections? • Allows for modulatory properties of drugs and other chemicals Learning and memory may happen here • Seems sensible that learning and memory could happen here • New synapses? – Enriched rats • Long Term Potentiation – Maybe – Looked really promising On a more oh macro level, how can you measure brian activity • There are many imaging techniques • Before even EEG we had techniques like those Penfield used • Neurosurgeons were usually a tad busy and had pesky operations to take care of… EEG • Oldest form of brain imaging CAT Scan • Computerized axial tomography PET scan • Positron emission tomography MRI • Magnetic Resonance Imaging So, how do you combine this stuff • • • • • • • • Easy (if expensive) Put a subject in an MRI or PET scanner scan Have her read a passage Do a distracter task scan Remember scan Some selected results • • • • • • Aplysia and habituation Feature detectors Face detectors Place cells HM KC conclusions • Look we KNOW memories are up there somewhere • However, we are a LONG way from figuring out where • We are also a long way from figuring out how • Even once we do, someone has to design the behavioural end of cognitive neuroscience