Thoughts, Consciousness, and

Memory
 THOUGHT

Neural mechanism for thought is not known.

Most likely a specific pattern of simultaneous neural
activity /signals in many brain areas.
•Though is future motor movements.
Learning and Memory

Learning is the ability to acquire new information or

skills through instruction or experience.
Memory is the process by which information
acquired through learning is stored .
Memory

Changes in the capability of synaptic transmission

from neuron to neuron as a result of prior
stimulation. Increasing the sensitivity of synapse.
This new specific pattern or facilitated pathway of
signal transmission is called memory trace.
Once established they can be activated by the
thinking mind to reproduce the pattern and thus the
memory.
Long-Term Memory

results from a structural change in the synapse

increase in the area for vesicular release therefore,
more transmitter is released

Increase in the release site area

Consolidation of Memory

converting immediate memory into short and long-

term memory
results from chemical, physical and anatomical
changes in the synapse
requires time
interruption of the process by electrical shock or by
anesthesia will prevent memory development
rehearsal practice ,enhances consolidation
Role of thalamus in Memory

Thalamic structures are important for recalling

memories. Thalamus searches the memory
storehouse .
Damage to thalamus causes retrograde amnesia
or the inability to recall stored experiences.
Thalamus searches the cortex for the old stored
memory.
Hippocampus

promotes storage of memory .

damage causes anterograde amnesia
reward and punishment determine whether or not information will be stored
as memory. Is it worthy of memory ?
a person becomes habituated to useless stimuli but learns any sensory
experience that causes pain or pleasure
• Learning is acquisition of the information and
memory is the retention and storage of that
information.
• Memory is the ability to store the experiences,
information or skills and to recall these
consciously or unconsciously.
• Memory is stored by changing the sensitivity
of synaptic transmission through neural
activity
• New synaptic pathways are formed termed as
memory traces
 Negative memory
Brain ignores information that is of no
consequence----- Indifferent information
synaptic pathway suppressed or inhibited—
termed as habituation
 Positive memory
• The brain has capability of storing incoming
information that causes important
consequences such as pain or pleasure
• This is positive memory
• Memory traces are formed from facilitation of
the synaptic pathways
• and the process is called memory
sensitization
3 Types of Memory

Short term memory

lasts for seconds or minutes
Intermediate memory
lasts for days to weeks
long-term memory
lasts for years or for a lifetime
 Classification of memory
1. Short-term memory which includes
memories that last for seconds or at most
minutes unless they are converted into
longer-term memories
2. Intermediate long-term memories which last
for days to weeks but then fade away
3. Long-term memory which, once stored, can
be recalled up to years or even a lifetime
later
 Working memory
• It is short term memory used for intellectual
reasoning or performing some task—
terminated when problem resolved.
• Stored in prefrontal cortex
 Classificationofmemory(type of
information)
1. Declarative memory (Explicit) means memory of
various details of an integrated thought (intellect)
such as memory of an important experience,
memory of the surroundings,memory of a
relatonship.
2. Skill memory (Implicit) is associated with
• motor activities of the person’s body, such
as hitting a cricket ball
 Explicit or declarative memory

• It is associated with consciousness—or at least

awareness—and is dependent on the
hippocampus and other parts of the medial
temporal lobes of the brain for its retention.
• Events and facts, memory of surroundings, time
relationship, cause and meaning of experience.
Implicit or non declarative memory

• Does not involve awareness, and its retention

does not usually involve processing in the
hippocampus.
• Such as all the skills developed for hitting a
tennis ball, typing
• Stored in cerebellum/basal ganglia
Mechanism of Memory

Intermediate memory may result from a temporary

chemical changes in the pre- or postsynaptic
membrane.
Long term memory from structural changes in the synapses.
 Mechanism of short-term memory

• Short term memory result from nerve

signals that travel around and around a
memory trace in a circuit of reverberating
neurons.
• Pre-synaptic facilitation/habituation
 Mechanism of INTERMEDIATE LONG-TERM
MEMORY

• Lasts for many minutes, days, even weeks

• Temporary physical and chemical changes in
pre-synaptic or post synaptic terminals.
• Sensitization and habituation
• (Habituation)it is a type of negative memory
in which neural circuit lose its ability to
respond to repeated events that are
insignificant.
Closure of calcium channels
• ( Facilitation )
Facilitator neuron—release serotonin—increase
cAMP---activate kinases---inactivate K channels
—Action potential prolonged
 Long term memory
• Actual structural changes at the synapse in
addition to Chemical changes
• Structural changes
increased number of pre-synaptic
terminals
• Increase number of vesicles
• Increase in vesicle release site
• Increase in dendritic tree
Number of Neurons and Their
Connectivities Often Change
Significantly During Learning
• Soon after birth, there is a principle of "use it
or lose it" that governs the final number of
neurons and their Connectivities
• If one eye of a newborn animal is covered for
many weeks after birth, neurons connected
to the covered eye-will degenerate, and the
covered eye will remain either partially or
totally blind for the remainder of life.
 Consolidation of Memory

• Converting short term memory to long term is

consolidation of memory
 How to consolidate
1. Rehearsal Enhances the Transference of
Short-Term Memory into Long-Term Memory
• This process requires 5 to 10 minutes for
minimal consolidation and 1 hour or more for
strong consolidation.
2. Association with pleasant or painful
experience
 New Memories Are Codified During
Consolidation
• Similar types of information are pulled from
the memory storage bins and used to help
process the new information.
• The new and old are compared for similarities
and differences, and part of the storage
process is to store the similar information in
one folder
 Hippocampus & Medial Temporal Lobe

• Required for declarative types of memory in

long-term memory, or even in intermediate
memory lasting longer than a few minutes.
• Their lesion result in anterograde amnesia.
• Failure to make new memories
 Retrograde Amnesia—Inability to
Recall Memories from the Past.

• Lesion in certain thalamic nuclei result in

retrograde amnesia more
• When retrograde amnesia occurs, the degree
of amnesia for recent events is likely to be
much greater than for events of the distant
past.
• The reason for this difference is probably
that the distant memories have been
rehearsed so many times that the memory
traces are deeply ingrained, and elements of
these memories are stored in widespread
areas of the brain.
 déjà vu phenomenon
• An inappropriate feeling of familiarity with
new events or in new surroundings is known
clinically as the déjà vu phenomenon, from
the French words meaning "already seen."
• The phenomenon occurs from time to time in
normal individuals, but it also may occur as
an aura (a sensation immediately preceding a
seizure) in patients with temporal lobe
epilepsy.
 Alzheimer Disease & Senile Dementia

• Is the most common age-related

neurodegenerative disorder.
• Loss of short-term memory is followed
by general loss of cognitive and other
brain functions,
• the need for constant care, and, eventually,
death.
• Senile dementia can be caused by vascular
disease and other disorders
• The cytopathologic hallmarks of Alzheimer
disease are intracellular neurofibrillary
tangles, and extracellular senile plaques.
• There is increased amounts of beta-
amyloid peptide in the brains of patients
with Alzheimer's disease.