NEUROSCIENCE

Neuroscience learning memory

Neuroscience learning memory

What is memory? It is often associated with the “thinking of again” or “recalling to the mind” of something learned at an earlier time. Descriptions of this sort imply a conscious awareness in the rememberer that they are recollecting something of the past. For example, we might remember our first day of school or some general knowledge such as who the prime minister is. On closer reflection, this is only really the tip of the iceberg when we look at the full range of human memory capabilities. Much of our memory is submerged from conscious view (e.g., skills such as driving or typewriting).

Performance on complex tasks such as playing a musical instrument can even be disrupted when conscious awareness intrudes. We learn and remember how to use language often without having to be conscious of its grammatical rules. A better description of memory could be 'the ability to retain and utilize acquired information or knowledge'. Memory is an integral part of our existence, yet it is only vaguely understood. Through empirical studies on people, the methods of cognitive psychology have lead to some useful descriptions, distinctions and theoretical advances in our understanding of different types of memory. These approaches have paid little attention to the biological substrate of memory - the brain. This is probably partly because, until recently, the tremendous complexity of the brain has hampered our ability to gain useful insights into memory from it. But now, our understanding of the brain is beginning to reach a level of sophistication that may allow this. Tentative links between brain processes and cognitive theories are beginning to emerge in our quest to understand memory. Behavioral neurogenetics has shown that the variation of structures in the brain is controlled by genetic factors (Gerald Edelman, 2000) and led us to question their internal functioning, namely, to try to understand how the genetic variation of the hippocampal circuitry can control cognitive abilities. Different results have shown, sometimes with conflicting evidence, that the intraspecific variations in the size of the different hippocampal mossy fiber synaptic fields present genetic correlations with the variation of novelty responses Neuroscience has had at least four identifiable effects on the field of learning and memory. It has (1) provided compelling new data on the underlying brain mechanisms of learning and memory behaviors; (2) reintegrated animal and human research on learning and memory; (3) pushed the field to move toward more functional understandings of mechanisms and processes; and (4) motivated detailed and rich behavioral analyses of the simpler forms of learning and memory that are more accessible to neurobiological study. It might seem that neuroscience has taken over learning and memory; that behavioral analyses, methods, and paradigms have lost ground to biologically-oriented approaches. Nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, brain research has reinvigorated the psychology of learning and memory, creating an expanded need for new and refined behavioral analyses. The net effect is that neuroscience has altered the landscape for behavioral research, shifting ...