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The Vermont Brain Bee Presents:
VBC - Session #5
Cognition, Memory, Language
WELCOME!
Today’s Agenda:

Learning, Emotion and Memory (25

min)

Thinking, Planning, Language (25

min)

Sneak Peek of Next Session! (5-10

min)

Kahoot if time!
 Chapter 4: Learning, Memory, and Emotion

https://static1.squarespace.com/static/52ec8c1ae4b047ccc14d6f29/t/5750f2a32fe1315b8d98018d/1526033957297/hippocampus.jpg?format=1500w
The Limbic System
Types of Memory
● Declarative: facts, data, events→ conscious recall
○ Long Term Memory:
■ Semantic: accumulated cultural ideas, knowledge, concepts
■ Episodic: personal experiences, e.g. stories
● Emotional significance modulated by amygdala
○ Short Term Memory:
■ Working: what you can hold in your head for a short period of time, (e.g. phone number,
name, email address) can be turned into long term memory
● Coordinated by PFC (prefrontal cortex)
○ Spatial Memory:
■ Hippocampal place cells light up when moving through a familiar area
Types of Memory
● Non-declarative: implicit or procedural memory
○ Skill Learning
■ Acquired motor skills, e.g. tying a shoe
○ Priming
■ More likely to use a word you heard recently
○ Conditioning
■ Think Pavlovian→ salivation when smelling food
○ Involves many aspects of brain; most important= basal ganglia, cerebellum, cerebral cortex
https://www.ajnr.org/content/ajnr/35/11/2058/F2.large.jpg
Amnesia and Dissociative Disorders
Amnesia is different from forgetting or Types of Amnesia
neurodegeneration: large swaths or types of
memory are wiped out at once due to an event Psychological: Caused by a traumatic event;
also classified as dissociative disorders
Famous Anterograde Amnesia Patient: HM
-DID, Dissociative Fugue, Dissociative Amnesia

Neurological: Caused by a brain lesion/circuitry

damage

-Lesions to medial temporal lobe, cortices of

hippocampus and thalamic nuclei

Developmental: Childhood Amnesia

Memory and Emotion
Amygdala highly involved

Memory-enhancing effect

Strong emotion also retrieves memory

Synaptic Plasticity
● The ability for synapses to remodel themselves
● Synapses that fire repeatedly for extensive periods of time are strengthened,
synapses that are not fired frequently are weakened
○ How? Genes→ most importantly, genes encoding for CREB(cAMP response element binding
protein) and NMDA (an ionotropic glutamate receptor)

● The result of 2 opposing but equal processes;

○ Long term potentiation (LTP)
○ Long term depression (LTD)
Long Term Potentiation (LTP)
● Long lasting increase in synaptic strength
● Key in learning and memory
● 2 kinds of receptors involved
● NMDA--Voltage-gated calcium channel
● AMPA--Glutamate responding channel
● High levels of glutamate increases
number of AMPA receptors and in turn the
amount of glutamate released
● (cAMP and PKs)
Long Term Depression (LTD)
● A method of weakening synapses
● Contrast is essential for efficiency
and memory
● Synapses weakening is triggered
by low levels of glutamate
● In turn causes lower Ca2+
movement
● Activates phosphatases instead of
kinases
Poll #1
When you memorize state capitals for school, you are using your ______
memory and ______ is happening at your synapses.

A) Semantic, LTD
B) Procedural, LTP
C) Semantic, LTP
D) Episodic, LTD

LTD = Long Term Depression

LTP = Long Term Potentiation

Synaptic Pruning

Source: Hodge 2017

Memory Case Study
London Cab Driver Study

-Memorizing streets physically enlarged

the hippocampus--necessary for spatial
navigation

-Those that did not pass the test

showed less average enlargement

-Enlarged hippocampus came at the

cost of visual memory
Chapter 6 - Thinking, Planning and Language
Constructing Representations:

Perceptions - dog, bike - kinds, types

Semantic memory

Temporal Lobe - object recognition

Categorizing:

Animals?

Gray animals?

carnivores?
Recognition and Agnosias
● Some temporal lobe damage can leads to lack of recognition and
identification of visual stimuli:

○ Agnosia→ there are many different types of agnosias based on where damage occurs
○ But there are 3 main types of agnosia: visual, auditory, and tactile.

● Fusiform Face Area (FFA)

○ Located on the underside of the temporal lobe; critical in recognition of faces
○ Damage results in “prosopagnosia” or face-blindness
Which of the following is the correct term for lack of
recognition of visual stimuli?

A. Aphasia
B. Agnosia
C. Ataxia
D. Aneurysm
Specialization and Organization
● The brain organizes its recognition abilities hierarchically.
○ This means that similar information is processed in similar areas of the brain, and dissimilar
information is processed in different areas of the brain
● In this example, the
overarching theme is
living things, however
the brain
compartmentalizes
different pieces of
information within the
subject.
● This is occurring for all
different subjects all
across the brain
Language Processing
Executive Function
● Combination of 3 core skills;
○ Inhibition
■ Talking or acting out of turn or inappropriately.
○ Working memory
■ To maintain and manipulate information without help - like recalling a phone number
without cues.
○ Cognitive Shifting
■ Mental flexibility: can adapt to changing rules midstream.

Mainly governed by the PFC (prefrontal cortex) and is a frontal lobe deficit.
Decision Making
● The fundamental skills of executive function provide the basis for decision
making
○ Inhibition, working memory, shifting

● 2 types of decision making; logical and emotional (affective)

○ Both require the PFC for adequate functioning
○ This is one of the last areas of the brain to fully develop (mid-20s)

● Orbitofrontal cortex
○ Part of the PFC located directly behind the eyes
○ Critical in affective decision making, especially in risk vs reward situations
What are the fundamental skills of executive
function?
A. Inhibition, long term memory, shifting
B. Activation, inhibition, working memory
C. Inhibition, working memory, shifting
D. Shifting, decision making, organization
 Social Neuroscience

Humans = Social Creatures

Social Neuroscience = study of neural functions of interpersonal behavior ie.

reading social cues, understanding social rules, choosing socially- appropriate
responses and understanding oneself and others.
Mentalizing
Making sense of ourselves and others - implicitly and explicitly!

It is a part of Social Neuroscience and biologically is found in the medial

PFC and some areas of the lateral PFC. Important for empathy!

Mirror Neurons - underlie our ability to understand another person’s

actions! A popular and controversial theory of social cognition!
New Insights in Language Research
FOXP2 - code for a special type of protein that switches other genes on and off in
particular parts of the brain.

Mutations in FOXP2 result in difficulties making mouth and jaw movements in the
sequences needed for certain words - spoken and written language results too.

Does language shape the way we think?

Fun TED talk: “How Language Shapes the Way We Think?”

Broca’s Aphasia Example
Wernicke’s Aphasia Example
Next Session: Brain Development: Childhood, Adolescent, and Aging
 Thank you for attending the

NEXT SESSION: Tuesday, Nov 3, 3:45-5:00

Exit Poll!