Physiology of Behavior Chapter 13

Learning to recognize a particular stimulus

Learning to automatically make a particular response in the presence of a particular stimulus; includes classical and instrumental conditioning

A learning procedure; when a stimulus that initially produces no particular response is followed several times by an unconditional stimulus (US) that produces a defensive or appetitive response (the unconditional response-UR), the first stimulus (now called a conidtional stimulus-CS) itself evokes the response (now called the conidtional response-CR)

The hypothesis proposed by Donald Hebb that the cellular basis of learning involves strengthening of a synapse that is repeatedly active when the postsynaptic neuron fires

A learning procedure whereby the effects of a particular situation increase (reinforce) or decrease (punish) the probability of the behavior; also called operant conditioning

An appetitive stimulus that follow a particular behavior and thus makes the behavior become more frequent

An aversive stimulus that follows a particular behavior and thus makes the behavior become less frequent

Learning to make a new response

A long-term increase in the excitability of the neuron to a particular part of the limbic system; includes the hippocampus proper (Ammon's horn), gentate gyrus, and subiculum

An evoked potential that represents the EPSPs of a population of neurons

A long-term potentiation in which concurrent stimulation of weak and strong synapses to a given neuron strengthens the weak ones

A specialized ionotropic glutamate receptor that controls a calcium channel that is normally blocked by Mg2+ ions; involved in long term potentiation

2-Amino-5-phosphonopentanoate, a druge that blocks NMDA receptors

An action potential that occurs in the dendrite of some types of pyramidal cells

An ionotropic-glutamate receptor that controls a sodium channel; when open, it produces EPSPs

Type II calcium-calmodulin kinase, an enzyme that must be activated by calcium; may play a role in the establishment of long-term potentiation

An enzyme responsible for the production of nitric oxide

A long-term decrease in the excitability of a neuron to a particular synaptic input caused by stimulation of the terminal button while the postsynaptic membrane is hyperpolarized or only slightly depolarized

Memory for a stimulus or an event that lasts for a short while

A task that requires the subject to indicate which of several stimuli has just been perceived

A group of dopaminergic neurons in the ventral midbrain whose axons form the mesolimbic and mesocortical systems; plays a critical role in reinforcement

A nucleus of the basal forebrain near the septum; receives dopamine-secreting terminal buttons from neurons of the ventral tegmental area and is thought to be involved in reinforcement and attention

A fiber bundle that runs in a rostral-caudal direction through the basal forebrain and lateral hypothalamus; electrical stimulation of these axons is reinforcing

Amnesia for events that occur after some disturbance to the brain, such as head injury or certain degenerative brain disease

Amnesia for events that preceded some distrubance to the brain; such as a head injury or electroconvulsive shock

Permanent anterograde amnesia caused by brain damage resulting from chronic alcocholism or malnutrition

The process by which short-term memories are converted into long-term memories

Memory that can be verbally expressed, such as memory for events in a person's past

Memory whose formation does not depend on the hippocampus formation; a collective term for perceptual, stimulus-response, and motor memory

A region of limbic cortex adjacent to the hippocampal formation that, along with the parahipoocampal cortex, relays information between the entorhinal cortex and other regions of the brain

A region of limbic cortex adjacent to the hippocampal formation that, along with the perirhinal cortex, relays information between the entohinal cortex and other regions of the brain

Memory of a collection of perception of events organized in time and identified by a particular context

A memory of facts and general information

Loss of semantic memories caused by progressive degeneration of the neocortex of the lateral temporal lobes

A neuron that becomes active when the animal is in a particular location in the environment; most typically found in the hippocampal formation

A period of intense, high- frequency oscillations that originate in hippocampal fields (CA1 and CA3 and propagate to the cerebral cortex; involved in replay of information from periods of waking during slow-wave sleep

A process of consolidation of a memory that occurs subsequent to the original consolidation that can be triggered by a reminder of the original stimulus; thought to provide the means for modifying existing memories