Which Side Of The Brain Controls Memory?
Memory
Parts of the Brain Involved with Retention
Learning Objectives
By the finish of this section, you will be able to:
- Explain the brain functions involved in memory
- Recognize the roles of the hippocampus, amygdala, and cerebellum
Are memories stored in merely 1 part of the encephalon, or are they stored in many different parts of the brain? Karl Lashley began exploring this problem, about 100 years ago, by making lesions in the brains of animals such as rats and monkeys. He was searching for evidence of the engram: the group of neurons that serve equally the "concrete representation of memory" (Josselyn, 2010). First, Lashley (1950) trained rats to find their way through a maze. Then, he used the tools available at the time—in this instance a soldering fe—to create lesions in the rats' brains, specifically in the cognitive cortex. He did this because he was trying to erase the engram, or the original memory trace that the rats had of the maze.
Lashley did not find evidence of the engram, and the rats were notwithstanding able to find their way through the maze, regardless of the size or location of the lesion. Based on his cosmos of lesions and the animals' reaction, he formulated the equipotentiality hypothesis: if part of one area of the brain involved in memory is damaged, another part of the same area tin can have over that retention function (Lashley, 1950). Although Lashley's early work did non confirm the existence of the engram, modern psychologists are making progress locating information technology. Eric Kandel, for example, spent decades working on the synapse, the basic structure of the encephalon, and its role in controlling the flow of information through neural circuits needed to shop memories (Mayford, Siegelbaum, & Kandel, 2012).
Many scientists believe that the entire brain is involved with memory. However, since Lashley's enquiry, other scientists have been able to look more closely at the brain and memory. They accept argued that retention is located in specific parts of the brain, and specific neurons can be recognized for their involvement in forming memories. The chief parts of the brain involved with retention are the amygdala, the hippocampus, the cerebellum, and the prefrontal cortex.
The amygdala is involved in fear and fearfulness memories. The hippocampus is associated with declarative and episodic memory too as recognition retention. The cerebellum plays a role in processing procedural memories, such equally how to play the piano. The prefrontal cortex appears to be involved in remembering semantic tasks.
THE AMYGDALA
Commencement, let's wait at the role of the amygdala in memory formation. The main job of the amygdala is to regulate emotions, such as fear and aggression. The amygdala plays a part in how memories are stored because storage is influenced past stress hormones. For example, one researcher experimented with rats and the fearfulness response (Josselyn, 2010). Using Pavlovian conditioning, a neutral tone was paired with a foot daze to the rats. This produced a fear memory in the rats. Later being conditioned, each fourth dimension they heard the tone, they would freeze (a defence response in rats), indicating a memory for the impending stupor. And so the researchers induced jail cell death in neurons in the lateral amygdala, which is the specific surface area of the brain responsible for fear memories. They found the fearfulness retention faded (became extinct). Because of its role in processing emotional data, the amygdala is also involved in retentivity consolidation: the procedure of transferring new learning into long-term retention. The amygdala seems to facilitate encoding memories at a deeper level when the event is emotionally arousing.
In this TED Talk called "A Mouse. A Laser Beam. A Manipulated Memory," Steve Ramirez and Xu Liu from MIT talk about using light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation beams to manipulate fearfulness memory in rats. Find out why their work caused a media frenzy in one case information technology was published in Scientific discipline.
THE HIPPOCAMPUS
Another group of researchers besides experimented with rats to learn how the hippocampus functions in memory processing. They created lesions in the hippocampi of the rats, and found that the rats demonstrated memory harm on diverse tasks, such as object recognition and maze running. They ended that the hippocampus is involved in memory, specifically normal recognition memory besides as spatial retention (when the memory tasks are similar recall tests) (Clark, Zola, & Squire, 2000). Another chore of the hippocampus is to project information to cortical regions that give memories meaning and connect them with other continued memories. It as well plays a part in memory consolidation: the process of transferring new learning into long-term memory.
Injury to this area leaves u.s. unable to process new declarative memories. Ane famous patient, known for years but equally H. M., had both his left and right temporal lobes (hippocampi) removed in an attempt to help control the seizures he had been suffering from for years (Corkin, Amaral, González, Johnson, & Hyman, 1997). As a event, his declarative memory was significantly afflicted, and he could not form new semantic knowledge. He lost the ability to form new memories, nevertheless he could still remember information and events that had occurred prior to the surgery.
For a closer wait at how memory works, view this video on quirks of memory, and read more than in this article near patient HM.
THE CEREBELLUM AND PREFRONTAL CORTEX
Although the hippocampus seems to exist more of a processing area for explicit memories, you could still lose it and be able to create implicit memories (procedural retentivity, motor learning, and classical conditioning), cheers to your cerebellum. For example, one classical workout experiment is to accustom subjects to blink when they are given a puff of air. When researchers damaged the cerebellums of rabbits, they discovered that the rabbits were not able to learn the conditioned centre-blink response (Steinmetz, 1999; Greenish & Woodruff-Pak, 2000).
Other researchers have used encephalon scans, including positron emission tomography (PET) scans, to learn how people procedure and retain information. From these studies, it seems the prefrontal cortex is involved. In one study, participants had to complete two unlike tasks: either looking for the alphabetic character a in words (considered a perceptual chore) or categorizing a noun as either living or non-living (considered a semantic task) (Kapur et al., 1994). Participants were then asked which words they had previously seen. Retrieve was much meliorate for the semantic chore than for the perceptual chore. According to PET scans, there was much more activation in the left junior prefrontal cortex in the semantic task. In another study, encoding was associated with left frontal activity, while retrieval of data was associated with the right frontal region (Craik et al., 1999).
NEUROTRANSMITTERS
There also appear to be specific neurotransmitters involved with the process of memory, such as epinephrine, dopamine, serotonin, glutamate, and acetylcholine (Myhrer, 2003). There continues to be word and debate amongst researchers every bit to which neurotransmitter plays which specific role (Blockland, 1996). Although we don't yet know which role each neurotransmitter plays in memory, we do know that communication among neurons via neurotransmitters is critical for developing new memories. Repeated activity by neurons leads to increased neurotransmitters in the synapses and more than efficient and more synaptic connections. This is how memory consolidation occurs.
It is also believed that strong emotions trigger the germination of strong memories, and weaker emotional experiences class weaker memories; this is called arousal theory (Christianson, 1992). For case, strong emotional experiences can trigger the release of neurotransmitters, as well as hormones, which strengthen retention; therefore, our memory for an emotional event is usually better than our memory for a not-emotional event. When humans and animals are stressed, the brain secretes more of the neurotransmitter glutamate, which helps them think the stressful event (McGaugh, 2003). This is clearly evidenced by what is known every bit the flashbulb memory phenomenon.
A flashbulb retentivity is an exceptionally clear recollection of an important issue. Where were you when y'all starting time heard nearly the 9/11 terrorist attacks? Most likely you tin remember where you were and what you were doing. In fact, a Pew Research Eye (2011) survey found that for those Americans who were age viii or older at the time of the effect, 97% tin think the moment they learned of this upshot, fifty-fifty a decade after it happened.
Inaccurate and Imitation Memories
Fifty-fifty flashbulb memories can have decreased accurateness with the passage of time, even with very important events. For example, on at least 3 occasions, when asked how he heard about the terrorist attacks of 9/11, President George W. Bush responded inaccurately. In January 2002, less than iv months after the attacks, the and then sitting President Bush-league was asked how he heard about the attacks. He responded:
I was sitting there, and my Chief of Staff—well, first of all, when we walked into the classroom, I had seen this plane fly into the offset edifice. There was a Tv set assail. And y'all know, I thought it was pilot error and I was amazed that anybody could make such a terrible error. (Greenberg, 2004, p. two)
Reverse to what President Bush recalled, no one saw the first aeroplane hit, except people on the basis near the twin towers. The beginning plane was not videotaped because it was a normal Tuesday morning time in New York City, until the first plane hit.
Some people attributed Bush's wrong recollect of the event to conspiracy theories. Nevertheless, there is a much more benign explanation: human memory, even flashbulb memories, tin can be frail. In fact, memory tin can exist so delicate that we can convince a person an event happened to them, even when it did not. In studies, enquiry participants will think hearing a word, even though they never heard the give-and-take. For example, participants were given a list of 15 sleep-related words, but the word "sleep" was non on the list. Participants recalled hearing the word "slumber" even though they did not actually hear it (Roediger & McDermott, 2000). The researchers who discovered this named the theory after themselves and a fellow researcher, calling it the Deese-Roediger-McDermott paradigm.
Summary
Beginning with Karl Lashley, researchers and psychologists have been searching for the engram, which is the physical trace of retentivity. Lashley did not find the engram, but he did suggest that memories are distributed throughout the entire encephalon rather than stored in i specific area. At present nosotros know that three encephalon areas practice play significant roles in the processing and storage of unlike types of memories: cerebellum, hippocampus, and amygdala. The cerebellum's job is to process procedural memories; the hippocampus is where new memories are encoded; the amygdala helps determine what memories to store, and information technology plays a part in determining where the memories are stored based on whether we have a strong or weak emotional response to the event. Stiff emotional experiences tin trigger the release of neurotransmitters, equally well every bit hormones, which strengthen memory, so that retention for an emotional event is usually stronger than memory for a non-emotional upshot. This is shown by what is known equally the flashbulb retentivity phenomenon: our power to remember significant life events. Nonetheless, our memory for life events (autobiographical memory) is not ever authentic.
Review Questions
This physical trace of retention is known equally the ________.
- engram
- Lashley effect
- Deese-Roediger-McDermott Paradigm
- flashbulb memory issue
[reveal-respond q="149584″]Prove Answer[/reveal-answer]
[hidden-answer a="149584″]A[/hidden-respond]
An exceptionally clear recollection of an of import consequence is a (an) ________.
- engram
- arousal theory
- flashbulb retention
- equipotentiality hypothesis
[reveal-answer q="255733″]Bear witness Reply[/reveal-answer]
[hidden-reply a="255733″]C[/subconscious-answer]
Critical Thinking Questions
What might happen to your memory organization if you sustained impairment to your hippocampus?
Because your hippocampus seems to be more of a processing area for your explicit memories, injury to this surface area could leave you unable to process new declarative (explicit) memories; all the same, even with this loss, yous would be able to create implicit memories (procedural memory, motor learning and classical conditioning).
Personal Application Questions
Describe a flashbulb memory of a pregnant event in your life.
Glossary
- arousal theory
- strong emotions trigger the formation of strong memories and weaker emotional experiences form weaker memories
- engram
- physical trace of memory
- equipotentiality hypothesis
- some parts of the brain can accept over for damaged parts in forming and storing memories
- flashbulb memory
- uncommonly clear recollection of an important event
Which Side Of The Brain Controls Memory?,
Source: https://opentextbc.ca/psychologyopenstax/chapter/parts-of-the-brain-involved-with-memory/
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