Memory.pdf..............................

Memory
Memory and types
Neurologist
Neuropsychology
Conceptual division
Neuroanatomy of brain

1. Memory
Ms. Noor Ul Ain

2. Memory and types
-Acquisition, storage and retrieval of information
-What has been previously learned and can be utilised at a later time

4. Sensory
- Stores immediate sensory inputs briefly.
- Comes from five senses: hearing, vision, touch, smell, and taste.
- Lasts only as long as the senses are stimulated.

Types of Sensory Memory:
Iconic Memory:
- Stores visual information.

- Echoic Memory:
- Stores auditory information.
- Crucial for language learning.

- Haptic Memory:
- Relates to the sense of touch.
- Includes sensations like pressure, pain, itching, etc.

5. Short Term/working memory
-This type of memory involves the temporary storage of information
-Limited capacity and duration, typically holding information for a short
period—ranging from a few seconds to a minute—unless actively rehearsed
or transferred to long-term memory.
-Phonological loop (verbal), visuo-spatial sketchpad (non-verbal), Episodic
buffer (binder: visual, verbal), Central Executive (overlooks)
-Stored in chunks (serial number test)

6. Long term memory
-Explicit (declarative): consciously available memories
- Episodic: Events/personal experiences (Who, what, where, why: autonoetic)
- Semantic: facts and knowledge

-Implicit: unconscious, skill/task based, unconscious so doesn’t include higher
level functioning. Conditioned responses are superficial and implicit memory
based.
- Procedural: knowing how to perform a task

7. Conceptual Divisions
1)Stimulus Modality

●Long-term memory is divided into verbal (language-based) and non-verbal
(not language-based) material.
●This division stems from the brain's hemispheric asymmetry, with the left
hemisphere specialized for verbal information and the right hemisphere for
non-verbal information.
●Evidence supporting this division comes from patients with brain lesions,
split-brain patients, and brain imaging studies in healthy adults.

8. Cont.
2) Accessibility to Conscious Recollection:

●Squire (1992) categorized memory into declarative (explicit) and
non-declarative (implicit) systems.
●Implicit memory involves learning without conscious recollection, including
procedural learning, priming, and classical conditioning.
●Declarative memory involves consciously recollecting learned information,
such as facts or events.

9. Cont.
3) Type of Information:

●Tulving (1972) distinguished memory into 'semantic' and 'episodic' systems.
●Semantic memory stores factual, context-independent knowledge acquired
through repetition or rehearsal.
●Episodic memory stores context-dependent information, like personal
experiences or specific time-linked details.
●While considered distinct forms of memory, in reality, these memory types
interact through various brain subsystems rather than being completely
separate entities.

11. Levels of Processing Model - Craik and Lockhart (1972)

12. Neuroanatomy
-Contemporary model: modular system
-Medial temporal lobe
-Hippocampus
-Perirhinal cortex
-Amygdala (long term memories: fear responses in particular)
-Frontal lobe (hemispheric encoding/retrieval asymmetry: HERA Model)
- left: encoding
- right: retrieval

14. Episodic memory
-Ventral frontal lobe and
medial temporal lobe
connect through Uncinate
fasciculus

18. Recollection and Familiarity
-Recollection: Recall
- This involves remembering specific details or events.
- The hippocampus in the brain helps in remembering associations between different things. For
instance, it's essential for forming memories of events where several pieces of information are
connected to represent a particular happening.
- Autonoetic consciousness: Tulving

-Familiarity: Recognition
- This is recognizing something as familiar without recalling specific details about it.
- The perirhinal cortex, another part of the brain, plays a role in recognizing individual items as
familiar. For example, recognizing a face as familiar without remembering when or where you saw
that person before.

19. Impairments
-Anterograde memory refers to the acquisition of new information following
the onset of injury or disease.
-Retrograde memory refers to memory for facts that were acquired or events
that took place before the onset of injury or disease
-

20. Amnesic Syndrome
Characteristics:
Intact Working Memory: The immediate retention and manipulation of information are
preserved.
General Intellectual and Semantic Memory: Overall knowledge and understanding
remain intact.
Anterograde Amnesia: Difficulty in recalling or recognizing new facts or personal events.
Variable Retrograde Amnesia: Difficulty recalling previously known information to different
extents.
Intact Implicit Memory: Ability to retain information without conscious awareness of it.

21. Associated Causes and Conditions
Bilateral Medial Temporal Lobe Damage:
Selective damage to both sides of the medial temporal lobes often leads to this
specific pattern of memory impairment.
Herpes Simplex Encephalitis:
Viral infection causing severe destruction of medial temporal lobe structures,
potentially leading to extensive retrograde and semantic memory deficits.
Traumatic Brain Injury:
Results in less complete destruction of medial temporal lobe structures. Also
involves damage to frontal lobe structures, leading to attention and executive
impairments impacting memory.

22. Cont.
-Hippocampal damage:
More severe anterograde damage than retrograde, similarly, episodic
memories and autobiographical are more affected than semantic.
-Ability to ‘time travel’ diminishes

23. Cont.
Dementia (Alzheimer's Type):
Initially presents with significant episodic memory impairment but progresses
rapidly to affect attention, executive skills, semantic and remote memory,
language, perception, and praxis.
Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI):
Refers to significant memory impairment without other cognitive areas being
affected to the extent of receiving a dementia diagnosis. Some individuals with
MCI progress to dementia, while others remain relatively stable in cognitive
function.

24. Retrograde Memory Without Anterograde Impairment:
Sometimes, people can have trouble remembering past events (retrograde
memory impairment) without difficulty in forming new memories (anterograde
memory), leading to controversy in memory studies.
Psychogenic amnesia or fugue states can show temporary but severe retrograde
amnesia while still being able to acquire new information normally. Cases of focal
retrograde amnesia due to organic causes have also been reported,
demonstrating impairment in recalling past information without affecting the ability
to learn new things.

25. Selective Memory Deficits:
Patients with issues in the phonological loop might struggle to remember small
amounts of information, but their language skills remain normal.
Specific brain damage, such as left parietal or dorso-lateral frontal lobe damage,
can lead to such working memory issues.

26. Semantic Memory Deficits:
Selective deficits in semantic memory are uncommon and can result from damage
to lateral temporal lobes, head injuries, infections, or specific types of dementia.
Semantic dementia can affect current memory but often preserves
autobiographical episodic memory for recent events.
Semantic memories for different categories (e.g., living and non-living items) can
break down differently, leading to controversy in research, though evidence shows
dissociation between these categories in various cases and suggests involvement
of different brain networks in naming animals and tools.

27. Rehabilitation
-Memory rehabilitation aims to optimize social, psychological, vocational, and domestic
functioning in individuals with brain damage.
-The focus in rehabilitation strategies is debated between reducing impairment directly or
aiding compensation for permanent impairments.
-Low effectiveness of cognitive rehabilitation
-Compensatory approaches:
1) Enhanced Learning: Focusing on making more effective use of residual memory skills.
2) Mnemonic Strategies: Implementing specific memory techniques to aid recall and
retention.
3) External Aids: Using external tools or devices to support memory, such as calendars or
reminder apps.
4) Environmental Modification: Adapting the environment to support memory, like organizing
spaces or using visual cues.

28. Enhanced learning
1)Attention: Concentrating on the information to be remembered, minimizing distractions, and
consciously focusing on the task at hand.
2)Time: Spending more time on encoding information is linked to better retention. However, the
time spent should be efficient—frequent, short intervals rather than prolonged periods without
breaks.
3)Repetition: Repetition aids memory retention. Different forms of repetition, such as simple
repetition, spaced repetition (with increasing time intervals), and varied repetition, can
enhance learning.
4)Spaced Retrieval: This technique involves presenting information and then testing recall at
increasing intervals over time. Camp et al. (1996) used spaced retrieval to train individuals
with Alzheimer's disease in performing prospective memory tasks relevant to daily life.

29. Cont.
5) Vanishing Cues and Errorless Learning: The vanishing cues technique gradually removes parts
of information while learning, aiding individuals with amnesia to learn new material. Errorless
learning focuses on preventing mistakes during the learning process, enhancing learning speed.
Preventing errors might be particularly beneficial for individuals with more severe memory
impairment (Clare and Jones, 2008).

6) Study Techniques: Methods like PQRST (Preview, Question, Read, State, Test) and Mind Maps
are valuable for those returning to formal education. PQRST emphasizes previewing, questioning,
reading, stating, and testing material, while Mind Maps visually summarize information, using
drawings, colors, and connections between ideas to aid memory retention (Robinson, 1970; Buzan
and Buzan, 2000).

30. Mnemonics
●Mnemonics, used by memory performers, are effective for memorizing lists but require
practice and may be challenging for individuals with memory impairments.

●The method of loci associates items with specific locations along a pre-learned route or
journey using visual imagery, but these techniques are less commonly used by those
with memory impairments (Evans et al., 2003b).

●'Mental retracing' involves retracing steps to recall events or locate lost items,
commonly used internally and particularly helpful for individuals with memory
impairments following head injuries.

31. Cont.
●Converting numbers into words can aid in memorization; for instance, forming
sentences where the number of letters corresponds to a code (e.g., 'A Field Has Mice'
for 1534) is helpful for severe amnesia cases.

●For prospective memory support, external aids like prompts and mental-checking
routines are useful.

●Goal management training, involving a 'stop:think' routine to review current goals,
significantly improves task completion for individuals with traumatic brain injury (Fish et
al., 2007).

32. External Aid
-External aids play a crucial role in memory rehabilitation, backed by strong evidence
(Cicerone et al., 2011). Wall calendars, notebooks, or diaries serve as fundamental memory
systems for individuals with memory impairments.

-Choosing the right aid involves considering
- the nature and severity of cognitive impairment,
- premorbid experience of memory-aids usage
- personal preferences (paper-based vs. electronic systems).

-Technological aids like NeuroPage and SMS reminders
-Electronic dictaphones and dosset boxes also aid individuals with memory impairments in
managing spoken notes and medication schedules, respectively

33. Environmental modifications
-Goal is to reduce the memory demands imposed on the individual, facilitating ease of
navigation and orientation within their environment.

-Techniques such as signposts, labels, or color coding (e.g., consistent color-coding of
specific locations like toilet doors) aid in orienting individuals within their surroundings.

-Orientation boards are useful tools to help individuals maintain awareness of time and place.

-Simplifying the environment by reducing clutter and consistently storing items in designated
places (e.g., keys on a key holder) can significantly assist memory.

-"Smart houses" equipped with technological solutions are beneficial for people with memory
impairments, allowing for increased independence (Wilson and Evans, 2000).

35. Assessment
Memory tests involve various cognitive functions like attention, language, and executive
skills.
Reports from relatives often align more closely with test results than self-reports of memory
difficulties: Prospective and Retrospective Memory Questionnaire
Use of test batteries for formal testing along with clinical judgement

36. Cont.
WMS:
Large normative sample
Detecting memory issues but doesn't elaborate on everyday consequences
Rivermead behavioural memory test
Parallel versions + consequences of impairment

37. cont.
Remote memory for personal semantic knowledge is not assessed in tests
because of standardization issues
Use of autobiographical memory interview: used in cases of significant
consequences/impact on life and relationships

38. Key issues
Impaired performance on a single test should not be taken as definitive evidence
for an impairment of memory
Multiple cognitive factors need to be taken into account
Average score might not be normal for the client (dropping from high to normal
range might not be normal for client vs patient with premorbid dyslexia)