PSYC 2501 Lecture Notes - Lecture 25: Retrograde Amnesia, Sleep Study, Electrodermal Activity
26 Apr 2018
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Consolidation In the brain
• Standard model of consolidation
• When we are exposed to a stimulus, many areas of the brain are
active
• When we are exposed to a stimulus, many areas of the brain
are activated
• To deal with this, the cortex sends information about this
various activity to the hippocampus
• The hippocampus reactivates particularly during sleep and
coordinates the activity of various areas of the brain so that
these areas become linked to one another
• Eventually, over time, these connections are strengthened and
the role of the hippocampus is no longer necessary to retrieve
those memories
• So the hippocampus is strongly active when memories are first
formed but becomes less active when the memories are
consolidated in other areas of the brain so that only cortical
activity is necessary to retrieve old memories
• Evidence to support the role of the hippocampus in consolidation
• HM had no hippocampus
• He as ale to retriee old eories, ut he ould’t ake
new long-term memories
• HM had graded retrograde amnesia for events right before his
surgery showing that his newer memories were not consolidated
• Predictions
• If consolidation is disrupted, then memory should be worse
• Electroconvulsive shock study
• Rats were taught to jump over a barrier every 10 seconds
to avoid a shock
• After the rats learned this behavior, the rats were
administered electroconvulsive shocks (ECS) at different
intervals ranging between 20 seconds and 4 hours
• ECS is thought to disrupt consolidation
• Showed that consolidation of memory takes time
• The longer the interval between learning and the ECS,
the better the memory was
• Memory for an event is better if you sleep immediately after the
event
• Sleep study
• Learn list of nonsense syllables
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