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Demonstrations
! Short-term memory ! Long-term memory ! Implicit memory (priming) ! Implicit memory (motor skills)

Memory 1
December 3, 2012

Notes about memory

! Memory is a complex concept. Neuroanatomically, a whole system is likely to be involved and not only a specic brain part (e.g. hippocampus). ! There are many models that account for memory. We will only bring up two of them (3-store Model, Multiple Memory Systems). ! Two main subjects: H.M. and Clive Wearing, but others cited to make a point about memory.

Amnesia

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Amnesic Syndrome
The amnesic syndrome refers to a relatively pure memory decit for the learning of new episodic information. Causes: Brain lesions, viral infection (herpes encephalitis), alcoholism (Korsakos syndrome), oxygen deprivation

Amnesic Syndrome
! Severe and permanent anterograde amnesia ! Unimpaired short-term storage ! Semantic memory generally intact (WAIS-R)* ! Skill learning, conditioning, perceptual learning, priming relatively intact. ! Retrograde amnesia of varying extents

Patient HM
Epilepsy since 9 1953: Medial temporal lobes were removed from both hemispheres to treat his severe epilepsy

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Characteristics
IQ Language

HM
Above Average (112) Wechsler subtests: Information, Comprehension, Similarities and Vocabulary intact Intact on verbal and non-verbal tasks Severe and pervasive anterograde amnesia: regardless of memory test (free, serial, cued recall, yes/no recognition), stimulus material (word, digits, faces, shapes, etc.), and modality (vision, audition, etc.)

Characteristics
Long Term Memory

HM
Severe and pervasive anterograde amnesia: regardless of memory test (free, serial, cued recall, yes/no recognition), stimulus material (word, digits, faces, shapes, etc.), and modality (vision, audition, etc.) Retrograde amnesia extends back to age 16 (11 years before his operation)

Short-term memory Long term memory

STM LTM

Immediate recall Anterograde and retrograde amnesia

Intact Impaired

How consistent with the Atkinson & Shiffrin 3-store model?

Single dissociation

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HM (amnesic)
STM LTM Immediate recall Delayed learning Intact Impaired

HM & KF: Are they both consistent with this model?

KF (aphasic)
STM Immediate recall (e.g. digit span, missing scan) e.g. Paired learning Impaired

Alternative models: Levels of Processing, Working Memory Model

LTM

Intact

Multiple Memory Systems Model

Semantic Episodic

At first glance...
IQ Memory for ongoing events Intact Impaired

Text Text Text

semantic episodic

Single dissociation taken as evidence for the semantic vs. episodic distinction

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Problem: WAIS-R is biased towards semantic information learned early in life

Temporal gradient of retrograde amnesia Information and memories acquired early in life are less vulnerable to effects of a brain lesion

PZ (Butters, 1987)
Multiple Memory Systems Model

University professor who wrote an autobiography prior to onset of amnesia Could only define scientific terms acquired earlier in his career Parallel loss of episodic and semantic memory!
Text Text Text Text

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Mirror Tracing Task HM, like most people, was initially bad at this task. Displayed a normal learning curve; improved after every session Would not remember any of the previous sessions!

Every time H. M. performed the task, it struck him as an entirely new experience. He had no memory of doing it before. Yet with practice he became procient. At one point he said to me, after many of these trials, Huh, this was easier than I thought it would be Dr. Milner
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/05/us/05hm.html?pagewanted=all

Explicit

Remembering previous sessions of the mirror tracing activity Learning the task

Impaired

Multiple Memory Systems Model

Implicit

Intact

! Explicit memory tests: Conscious recollection of a previous experience (direct) ! Implicit memory tests: Demonstrates memory for past experience without conscious recollection (indirect)

Text Text Text Text

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(Tulving, Schacter, Stark (1982)

Priming Eects

Word-fragment completion task

1. Study phase: unusual multisyllabic words are presented (e.g. VENDETTA) 2.Retention interval (a few minutes to a week) 3.Testing phase: Recognition vs. Word puzzle test with missing letters (e.g. _EN_ _TT_). In the word puzzle test, it is not explained that these words were presented before.

Among normal subjects, there is a dissociation between recognition (explicit) and fragment completion (implicit) performance after 7 days

HMs sense of self?

In HM:
Normal word-stem fragment completion performance ... as long as the word entered the dictionary before his operation ...
! Amnesia is not an all-or-nothing condition ! Meager conscious recollections of postoperative memories (but never remembered his long-time researchers!) ! Does not know age or whether he has grey hair ! Memories of childhood: vacations with parents, number of relatives, but could not retrieve specic instances ! Appropriate social behavior; consistent beliefs (e.g. likes crossword puzzles); prosocial (e.g. aware that hes helping people by letting researches study him); has a sense of humor
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When HM looks into a mirror

When he looks at himself in a mirror, he shows no change in facial expression, his conversation is matter-of-fact, and he does not seem to be at all upset. On one occasion he was asked, What do you think about how you look? He replied, Im not a boy.

Corkin, 2002

February 26, 1926 - December 2, 2008

Henry Molaison
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Clive Wearing

Clive Wearing
! Contracted herpes encephalitis in 1985 ! Virus tends to attack temporal lobes (including hippocampus) and frontal lobes

! 1985: Sudden onset of herpes encephalitis; rst appearance in a documentary ! 1998: Clive at 60 y/o ! 2006

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Clive Wearing
! Impaired short-term memory and decreased social inhibition ! Episodic memory: remembers little about adult life aside from his wife and his being a musician ! Semantic memory is also markedly abnormal ! Dene eyelid: I dont know that word, it must be used by a great specialist. ! Especially poor knowledge of living things ! In contrast, his musical abilities are generally preserved.

Eects on life
! Sense of self: In and out of the abyss ! Could not live independently ! Could not resume his work as a conductor ! Clive and Deborah were only married for 6 months when the virus attacked his brain. Deborah divorced him (legal consent granted by Clives son) and attempted to start over in the US...