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Chapter 20: Learning & Memory
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Short-term working memory mainly involves which brain region(s)?
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A. Only the prefrontal cortex (PFC)
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B. Only the posterior parietal cortex and temporal cortex
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D. The PFC, posterior parietal cortex, and temporal cortex
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E. All regions of the frontal, parietal, and temporal lobes
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D. A combination of human functional imaging studies and research in rodents has demonstrated that short-term working memory involves specific regions in the prefrontal cortex, posterior parietal cortex, and temporal cortex.
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The hippocampus is required for the formation of new _________ memories.
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A. semantic, episodic, and spatial
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C. declarative and nondeclarative
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D. procedural and spatial
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A. Human studies (eg, patient H.M. and others) have demonstrated that the hippocampus is required for semantic and episodic (together with declarative or explicit) and spatial memory. Encoding of implicit/nondeclarative and short-term memory involves other brain regions.
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The majority of long-term explicit memories are thought to be stored in many
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A. structures of the medial temporal lobe (MTL).
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B. regions of the hippocampus.
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C. parts of the basal ganglia.
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D. domains of the cerebellum.
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E. areas of the cerebral cortex.
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E. Although encoding and formation of new declarative/explicit memories require the hippocampus, studies in rodents suggest that memories are transferred from the hippocampus to the cerebral cortex following encoding and learning over a period of days to weeks to months. Human studies also suggest that some episodic memories, especially autobiographical memories, are either stored in the hippocampus or require the hippocampus for retrieval.
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Long-term potentiation (LTP) is thought to be a neuronal mechanism involved in
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B. short-term working memory.
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D. only hippocampal-dependent memory.
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E. all types of memory: sensory, short-term, and long-term.
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C. Sensory memory involves very short-lived enhancement of synaptic transmission, whereas short-term working memory involves increased circuit activity, most likely via reverberating circuits in the prefrontal cortex. Neither sensory nor short-term working memory involves long-term synaptic changes, including biochemical changes. So only hippocampal-dependent memory (declarative and spatial memory) is thought to require LTP. That said, it is anticipated that other types of long-term memory such as nondeclarative, procedural, and motor memory will likely involve similar LTP and/or long-term depression mechanisms.
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Sleep has been proposed as an ideal period for system consolidation because during sleep there is _____________ the transmission or transfer of information from hippocampus to neocortex.
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A. little use of adenosine triphosphate (ATP) by other regions of the brain, so more ATP will be available for
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B. no incoming sensory activity; hence, there is no interference with
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C. detoxification of free radicals and toxic proteins that improves
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D. a decrease in rogue brain waves that might complicate and confound
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E. an increase in a specific brain wave that enhances
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B. Although all of these ideas have been proposed, are plausible, and are not mutually exclusive, the theory that many neuroscientists are most keen on at the moment is that during sleep there is reduced incoming sensory activity to the hippocampus, and thus synaptic and systems consolidation can proceed without interference.