Memory: A Comprehensive Guide to Its Types, Functions, and Neurobiology

Memory: A Complex Functional System

Memory is a complex functional system that is organized in different levels, active by nature, and unfolds in time through a series of successive links. It has no specific place where it is located.

Multialmacen Theory

Short-Term Memory (STM)

  • There is no index to measure the ability of the STM.
  • STM capacity depends on the type of task and type of recovery requested, not a fixed number.
  • Recovery rates influence the amount of information held in STM.
  • These indices appear to be influenced by the Long-Term Memory (LTM).
  • Repeat
    • Maintains information in short term.
    • Allows transfer of information to LTM.
    • If interference with a distractor, repetition yields lower results.
  • Encode
    • Gives meaning to pass information to LTM.
    • e.g., encode a phone number “01273 874000” becomes “Oh, 1, two hundred seventy-three, 8, 7, four thousand”
  • Recovery
    • Uses keys to facilitate recovery from LTM.

Memories of Work Types

STM Tasks

  • Direct Digit Series
  • [3 2 5 7] -> 3 2 5 7
  • Series of representative figures

LTM Tasks

  • Reverse Digit Series
  • [3 2 5 7] -> 3 2 5 7
  • A series of figures in reverse
  • Generation of numbers or letters in random order

Classification of Memory

I. Implicit Memory (Undeclared)

Acquisition of knowledge without the ability to verbalize what has been learned in the process.

Ability to solve problems or sequential language without being able to explain what we have learned.

It refers to feelings, skills, and abilities that are recalled unconsciously.

Ø Classical Conditioning

Basic emotional responses.

Ø Procedural Memory

Ø Priming

II. Explicit Memory (Declarative)

Is the type of memory that is consciously manifested through language.

A prerequisite for the “storage” of explicit memory is the awareness and immediate processing of the material (repetition or association).

Ø Semantic memory

Ø Episodic memory

Historical Background of the Neurobiology of Memory

Dr. Wilder Penfield (1891-1976)

  • American Neurosurgeon.
  • Founded the Montreal Neurological Institute.

Dr. Brenda Milner, University of Montreal (Canada)

  • Canadian Neuropsychologist.
  • A pioneer in applying the techniques of experimental psychology in a field dominated by clinical studies.
  • Made many works about memory impairment in relation to the injuries of the cerebral hemispheres.
  • In-depth analysis of global amnesic syndrome.

Eric Kandel

  • Born in Vienna, Austria in 1929. U.S. citizen.
  • Received his doctorate in medicine at the University of New York and his subsequent training is split between the neurophysiology and psychiatry Massachusetts, Harvard University, and Paris.

Neurobiological Basis of Memory

It was long thought that the information was stored in the hippocampus.

Current theories point out that the hippocampus is only temporary storage of long-term memory and information learned would be transferred for final disposal to other areas of the cortex.

Theory:

The hippocampus is an intermediate station for long-term memory, or a clearing system that is essential for memory storage elsewhere in the brain.