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