Memory

Prof. Dr. Saadoun D. Ahmed/ Consultant Psychiatrist

Introduction
Memory: Active system that stores, organizes, alters, and recovers (retrieves) information
A revolution in our understanding of brain function in humans has been brought about by the
development and widespread availability of positron emission tomographic (PET) scanning,
functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), and related techniques. PET is often used to
measure local glucose metabolism, which is proportionate to neural activity, and fMRI is used to
measure local amounts of oxygenated blood. These techniques make it possible to determine the
activity of the various parts of the brain in completely intact normal humans and in humans with
many different diseases. They have been used to study not only simple responses but complex
aspects of learning, memory, and perception. Different portions of the cortex are activated when
hearing, seeing, speaking, or generating words. Other techniques that have provided information on
cortical function include stimulation of the exposed cerebral cortex in conscious humans
undergoing neurosurgical procedures and, in a few instances, studies with chronically implanted
electrodes.
Learning & Memory
A characteristic of animals and particularly of humans is the ability to alter behavior on the basis of
experience. Learning is acquisition of the information that makes this possible and memory is the
retention and storage of that information. The two are obviously closely related and should be
considered together.
The Atkinson-Schiffrin model. Remembering is thought to involve at least three steps. Incoming
information is first held for a second or two by sensory memory. Information selected by attention
is then transferred to temporary storage in short-term memory (STM). If new information is not
rapidly encoded, or rehearsed, it is forgotten. If it is transferred to long-term memory (LTM), it
becomes relatively permanent, although retrieving it may be a problem. The preceding is a useful,
but highly simplified, model of memory; it may not be literally true of what happens in the brain
Forms of Memory

From a physiologic point of view, memory is appropriately divided into explicit and implicit forms.
1. Explicit memory (or declarative memory) is one of the two main types of long-term human
memory. It is the conscious, intentional recollection of factual information, previous experiences
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Prof. Dr. Saadoun D. Ahmed/ Consultant Psychiatrist

and concepts. Declarative memories are encoded by the hippocampus, entorhinal cortex and
perirhinal cortex (all within the medial temporal lobe of the brain), but are consolidated and
stored in the temporal cortex and elsewhere. Explicit memory can be divided into two
categories: Episodic memory, which stores specific personal experiences, episodic memory consists of
the storage and recollection of observational information attached to specific life-events. These can
be memories that happened to the subject directly or just memories of events that happened around
them. Episodic memory allows for mental time travel recalling various contextual and situational
details of one's previous experiences. Some examples of episodic memory include the memory of
entering a specific classroom for the first time, the memory of storing your carry-on baggage while
boarding a plane headed to a specific destination on a specific day and time, the memory of being
notified that you are being terminated from your job, or the memory of notifying a subordinate that
they are being terminated from their job. Semantic memory, which stores factual information.
Semantic memory refers to general world knowledge (facts, ideas, meaning and concepts) that can be
articulated and is independent of personal experience. This includes world knowledge, object
knowledge, language knowledge, and conceptual priming.

2. Implicit memory or procedural memory, which refers to unconscious memories such as skills
(e.g. learning to ride a bicycle). Remembering a specific driving lesson is an example of explicit
memory, while improved driving skill as a result of the lesson is an example of implicit memory.
Procedural memory (“knowing how”) is the unconscious memory of skills and how to do things,
particularly the use of objects or movements of the body, such as tying a shoelace, playing a guitar
or riding a bike. These memories are typically acquired through repetition and practice, and are
composed of automatic sensorimotor behaviors that are so deeply embedded that we are no longer
aware of them. Once learned, these "body memories" allow us to carry out ordinary motor actions
more or less automatically. Procedural memories, on the other hand, do not appear to involve the
hippocampus at all, and are encoded and stored by the cerebellum, putamen, caudate nucleus and
the motor cortex, all of which are involved in motor control. Learned skills such as riding a bike are
stored in the putamen; instinctive actions such as grooming are stored in the caudate nucleus; and
the cerebellum is involved with timing and coordination of body skills. Thus, without the medial
temporal lobe (the structure that includes the hippocampus), a person is still able to form new
procedural memories (such as playing the piano, for example), but cannot remember the events
during which they happened or were learned.
Autobiographical memory is a memory system consisting of episodes recollected from an
individual's life, based on a combination of episodic (personal experiences and specific objects,
people and events experienced at particular time and place) and semantic (general knowledge and
facts about the world) memory.
Spatial memory is the part of memory responsible for recording information about one's
environment and its spatial orientation. For example, a person's spatial memory is required in order
to navigate around a familiar city, just as a rat's spatial memory is needed to learn the location of
food at the end of a maze. It is often argued that in both humans and animals, spatial memories are
summarized as a cognitive map. Spatial memory has representations within working, short-term and
long-term memory. Research indicates that there are specific areas of the brain associated with
spatial memory.

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Prof. Dr. Saadoun D. Ahmed/ Consultant Psychiatrist

Neural Basis of Memory

The key to memory is alteration in the strength of selected synaptic connections. In all but the
simplest of cases, the alteration involves protein synthesis and activation of genes. This occurs
during the change from short-term working memory to long-term memory. In animals, acquisition
of long-term learned responses is prevented if, within 5 min after each training session, the animals
are anesthetized, given electroshock, subjected to hypothermia, or given drugs, antibodies, or
oligonucleotides that block the synthesis of proteins. If these interventions are performed 4 h after
the training sessions, there is no effect on acquisition. The human counterpart of this phenomenon
is the loss of memory for the events immediately preceding brain concussion or electroshock
therapy (retrograde amnesia). This amnesia encompasses longer periods than it does in
experimental animals—sometimes many days—but remote memories remain intact. While the
encoding process for short-term explicit memory involves the hippocampus, long-term memories
are stored in various parts of the neocortex. Apparently, the various parts of the memories —visual,
olfactory, auditory, etc—are located in the cortical regions concerned with these functions, and the
pieces are tied together by long-term changes in the strength of transmission at relevant synaptic
junctions so that all the components are brought to consciousness when the memory is recalled.
Once long-term memories have been established, they can be recalled or accessed by a large
number of different associations. For example, the memory of a vivid scene can be evoked not only
by a similar scene but also by a sound or smell associated with the scene and by words such as
“scene,” “vivid,” and “view.” Thus, each stored memory must have multiple routes or keys.
Furthermore, many memories have an emotional component or “color,” that is, in simplest terms,
memories can be pleasant or unpleasant.
Strangeness & Familiarity
It is interesting that stimulation of some parts of the temporal lobes in humans causes a change in
interpretation of one’s surroundings. For example, when the stimulus is applied, the subject may
feel strange in a familiar place or may feel that what is happening now has happened before. The
occurrence of a sense of familiarity or a sense of strangeness in appropriate situations probably
helps the normal individual adjust to the environment. In strange surroundings, one is alert and on
guard, whereas in familiar surroundings, vigilance is relaxed. 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.
Remembering; refers to the recall of previous experience in the form of imagination or words or
otherwise.
Phases of remembering;
1. Impression (Encoding) stage
2. Retention (Storage) stage
3. Reproduction. (Recall; Retrieval) stage.
We have to learn lesson, we have to record it in some way and then it has to be recalled or
recognized later.
It means classification and placing memory items in their proper memory stores in brain
Brain areas concerned with encoding of long term memory;
1. Hippocampus (major central role) all bits of information go to it first
2. Amygdala (emotional memory)
3. Basal forebrain (Nucleus basalis or Meynerts nucleus)
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4. Noecortex
5. Mammillary body of hypothalamus
6. Orbitofrontal cortex
Consolidation of memory
It means the process of conversion of STM to LTM, It takes from 5 min to 2 hrs, It is interrupted
by: Deep anesthesia, Brain concussion, Electroconvulsive therapy
Brain Regions involved in Consolidation of memory
Hippocampus, Anterior & lateral temporal lobe, Medial temporal lobe, Amygdala
Factors affect remembering
A. Factors affect impression or learning, attention was an important factor in perception.
B. Factors affect retention;
1. Interference; the learning of the second lesson interfere on the remembering of the first lesson
this called retroactive interference and the first lesson also interfere with the remembering of the
second lesson and this is called proactive interference. This sort of difficulty is less likely to occur if
the lessons are very different in character.
2. Time; people tend to remember things better if they do little at a time, with frequent but not too
prolonged rest pause.
3. Rehearsed; lessons tend to be forgotten if they are not frequently rehearsed.
4. Concussion or (ECT) can cause people to forget events both before and after an insult.
C. Factors affect reproduction (recall):
[Link] 2. Drug.
Causes of forgetting: Misses appointments, misplace eyeglasses, failure to recall the names of
familiar faces are common examples of forgetting.
1. Encoding failure
Encoding failure occurs when information was never entered into long term memory.
2. Retrieval failure: Causes of retrieval failure include:
1) Interference theory: states that people forget not because memories are actually lost from the
storage but because other information gets in the way of what they want to remember.
2) Decay and Transience: states that, when something new is learned, a neurochemical memory
trace is formed, but over time this trace tends to disintegrate. Decay theory suggests that the
passage of time always increase forgetting.
3) Motivated forgetting; it occurs when people forget something because it is so painful or
anxiety –laden that remembering is intolerable This type of forgetting may be a consequence of
rape or physical abuse, or in survivors of war or earthquakes or other terrifying events.
Repression: Unconsciously pushing painful, embarrassing, or threatening memories out of
awareness/consciousness
– Motivated forgetting
Suppression: Consciously putting something painful or threatening out of mind or trying to keep it
from entering awareness
Ways to Improve Memory
• Spaced practice: Alternating short study sessions with brief rest periods
• Massed practice: Studying for long periods without rest periods
• Lack of sleep decreases retention; sleep aids consolidation
• Hunger decreases retention
• Selection: Selecting most important concepts to memorize
• Organization: Organizing difficult items into chunks; a type of reordering

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• Whole Learning: Studying an entire package of information at once, like a poem

• Part Learning: Studying subparts of a larger body of information (like text chapters)
• Progressive Part Learning: Breaking learning task into a series of short sections
• Serial Position Effect: Making most errors while remembering the middle of the list
• Overlearning: Studying is continued beyond bare mastery

Disorders of memory:
1. Amnesia: is the physiologically based loss of memory. Disorders of memory
A. Psychogenic amnesia; undue anxiety will interfere with perception and comprehension leading
to lack of memory.
(1) Anxiety amnesia.
(2) Catathymic amnesia; occur in normal person and in hysteria. The subject has a set of ideas
which are disturbing when conscious; they are therefore repressed in an attempt to avoid the affect
which they would produce.
(3) Hysterical or dissociative amnesia.
B. Organic amnesia;
(1) Acute coarse brain disease, acute head injury.
(2) Chronic coarse brain disease (dementia).
2. Distortion of memory
A. Disorders of recall (paramnesia).
(1) Retrospective falsification; the subject modifies his memories in forms of his general attitudes.
We all falsify the past to some degree. The hysterical personality can produce a complete falsified
set of memories of the past. Memory falsification resulting from mood and lack of insight may
occur in agitated depression and mania.
(2) Retrospective delusion; some schizophrenics back date their delusion for example, the patient
may insist that he has been persecuted for many years despite the fact that there is clear evidence
that his illness is of recent origin.
(3) Delusional memories; primary delusional experiences may take the form of memories, and
Schneider has divided these delusional memories into sudden ideas (Delusions arising out
of delusional mood are considered primary delusions because they are vague, their content does not
refer to the delusional mood and they are not understandable. ... Sudden delusional ideas are also
classified as primary delusions), and delusional perceptions (Delusional perception describes,
confusingly, a true perception, to which a patient attributes a false meaning. For example, a
perfectly normal event such as the traffic lights turning red may be interpreted by the patient as
meaning that the martians are about to land, another example: a cloud in the sky may be
misinterpreted as meaning that someone has sent that person a message to save the world).
(4) Confabulation; this is a detailed false description of an event, which is alleged to have occurred
in the past. It has been suggested that the Korsakoff patient confabulates in order to fill in the gaps
in his memory
B. Distortions of recognition
(1) Dejavu and Jamesvu; here the subject has the feeling that he has seen or experienced the current
situation before. The sense of recognition in dejavu is never absolute so that misidentification
doesn’t…e.g. in normal person, and in become excessive in temporal lobe lesion. Jamesvu is
feeling of unfamiliarity.
(2) Misidentification; may occur in psychosis, schizophrenia. It may be positive when the patient
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recognizes strangers e.g. his friends and relatives. In negative misidentification, the patient denies
that his friends and relatives are the people whom they say they are and insists that they are
strangers in disguise.
Memory and study strategies
How can you apply what you have learned about memory to your academic studies?
1. Encoding strategies:
A. Be a good time manager and planner: Managing your time effectively and planning to allow the
necessary time to study will give you the hours you need to do well academically.
B. Pay attention and minimize distraction.
C. Understand the material rather than rottenly memorizing it.
D. Ask yourself Questions: a self-questioning strategy can help you to remember as you read,
periodically stop and ask yourself questions.
E. Take good notes include summarizing, outlining, concept maps, note review.
2. Storage strategies.
The best ways to promote effective storage is to make sure that your brain is able to function at
maximum capacity. For most of us, that means being well rested, well nourished, in addition, you
can try the following strategies.
Organize your memory; arranger information, rework material, and give it a structure that will help
to remember it.
Spread out and Consolidate your learning regularly review what you learn .You will also benefit by
distributing your learning over a longer period rather than cramming for a test at the last minute.
3-Retrieval Strategies
A. use good retrieval cues
B. use the PQ4R Method; is a six step process
1. P=preview 2 .Q=Question 3. R=Read 4.R= Reflect 5. R=Recite 6.R= Review

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