Memory Formation
Memory formation occurs when we learn something new. With every new piece of information we learn we alter our nervous system, therefore discovering a new way to think, perform, plan, and perceive. Thus allowing us to gain a new memory of something we have learned that has impacted our lives enough to change our existing thought processes.
This all starts with a perception of a current situation. From the point in which the situation is introduced to our visual association cortex, auditory association cortex, and somatosensory cortex it starts its’ incredibly fast way to our hippocampal area, where it enters via the entorhinal cortex, where all of the information collected gets compressed into one situation or experience. The hippocampus also determines where this situation or experience will get encoded to, whether it is a long term memory or a short term memory. Also, even though the situation/experience has been compressed, the hippocampus decompresses it to store each piece of this new information from this experience in its appropriate place. This is done through neural transmissions that are made by various electro energies and chemicals that make up our bodies.
Neural transmission is the process by which dendrites of a neuron become active sending a signal to the soma that then gets carried through the axon by way of an action potential that travels through the axon that is covered beaded necklace style in the myelin sheath, to the terminal buttons which releases a neurotransmitter. In between the myelin sheathed parts of the axons are nodes of Ranvier. These little openings allow for the regeneration of an action potential by allowing for polarization or depolarization of ions to occur in these sections. There are numerous neurons in the body that speak to each other in chain-link fashion by way of synaptic transmission via synaptic clefts and vesicles, that are located on the terminal buttons that are attaching to dendrites. These can attach to smooth dendrites or to a dendrite spine. Neurotransmissions are released via presynaptic membranes that are located adjacent to the terminal buttons and received by postsynaptic membranes located opposite of the terminal buttons. These synapses communicate by way of staring each other down at the end of the terminal button, where the neurotransmitter is eventually diffused. Before it’s diffused it was able to open ion channels to allow proteins such as calcium, chloride, potassium, and sodium, to enter and exit by way of direct and indirect fashions that can cause excitatory or inhibitory postsynaptic potentials which can cause neural integration. The action potential starts the process of neurotransmission by waiting till a bunch of synapses are "docked" (as described on page 54 of our textbook Physiology of Behavior by Neil R. Carlson) at a presynaptic membrane where proteins get together with other proteins. After that has happened calcium ion channels help diffuse the neurotransmitter. All of these transmissions, synapses, and potentials are occurring and/or traveling through our central and peripheral nervous systems collecting and distributing information.
The neurons of our situation/ experience then become a long term potentiation by traveling the axons of the entorhinal cortex where the hippocampus’s formation of synapses with the granule cells takes shape via electrical stimulation. This electrical stimulation comes via the perforant path and ends up the population of excitatory postsynaptic potentials which determine the strength of the synaptic connection (as I have listed in my notes that I took from my understanding from page 439 of Physiology of Behavior by Neil R. Carlson). The strength of the synaptic connection is an indication of how strongly the memory will be encoded or not thus also determining its final destination in our short or long term memories and what subsets each portion of that memory will find itself in. For instance, you may remember a certain characteristic about a situation or experience more than the whole of the experience so the strength of that portion of the synaptic connection will fire stronger allowing the long term potentiation to occur, than that of a characteristic you did not pay much attention to and let fade to the background thus an LTP will not occur. In order for an LTP to occur, it must have activation of synapses and depolarization of postsynaptic neurons. Once that is achieved basic memory formation has occurred.
Subsequently, seizures can occur if there is a biochemical abnormality in the human body GABA secreting neurons that inhibit large numbers of GABA to be secreted causing epileptic seizures to occur. Such was the case when Henry Molaison had to have his hippocampus and entorhinal cortex removed due to continuous seizures that impaired his life dramatically after a bicycle accident he had at age 7. He then had both of those sections of his brain removed in an effort to stop the seizures. The surgery was a success however he permanently lost the ability to form new memories. He was, however, able to learn new motor skills but never attach those motor skills to an event in which he learned them; which is sad for H.M. since learning through our experiences by attaching our learned information to a perceptual time and place when we learned it, allows us to achieve greater learning ability. It was an asset to the neurobiology field since it shed considerable light on how important the hippocampus is to the establishment and organization of our memories, which is infinitely important to our depth of knowledge.
This all starts with a perception of a current situation. From the point in which the situation is introduced to our visual association cortex, auditory association cortex, and somatosensory cortex it starts its’ incredibly fast way to our hippocampal area, where it enters via the entorhinal cortex, where all of the information collected gets compressed into one situation or experience. The hippocampus also determines where this situation or experience will get encoded to, whether it is a long term memory or a short term memory. Also, even though the situation/experience has been compressed, the hippocampus decompresses it to store each piece of this new information from this experience in its appropriate place. This is done through neural transmissions that are made by various electro energies and chemicals that make up our bodies.
Neural transmission is the process by which dendrites of a neuron become active sending a signal to the soma that then gets carried through the axon by way of an action potential that travels through the axon that is covered beaded necklace style in the myelin sheath, to the terminal buttons which releases a neurotransmitter. In between the myelin sheathed parts of the axons are nodes of Ranvier. These little openings allow for the regeneration of an action potential by allowing for polarization or depolarization of ions to occur in these sections. There are numerous neurons in the body that speak to each other in chain-link fashion by way of synaptic transmission via synaptic clefts and vesicles, that are located on the terminal buttons that are attaching to dendrites. These can attach to smooth dendrites or to a dendrite spine. Neurotransmissions are released via presynaptic membranes that are located adjacent to the terminal buttons and received by postsynaptic membranes located opposite of the terminal buttons. These synapses communicate by way of staring each other down at the end of the terminal button, where the neurotransmitter is eventually diffused. Before it’s diffused it was able to open ion channels to allow proteins such as calcium, chloride, potassium, and sodium, to enter and exit by way of direct and indirect fashions that can cause excitatory or inhibitory postsynaptic potentials which can cause neural integration. The action potential starts the process of neurotransmission by waiting till a bunch of synapses are "docked" (as described on page 54 of our textbook Physiology of Behavior by Neil R. Carlson) at a presynaptic membrane where proteins get together with other proteins. After that has happened calcium ion channels help diffuse the neurotransmitter. All of these transmissions, synapses, and potentials are occurring and/or traveling through our central and peripheral nervous systems collecting and distributing information.
The neurons of our situation/ experience then become a long term potentiation by traveling the axons of the entorhinal cortex where the hippocampus’s formation of synapses with the granule cells takes shape via electrical stimulation. This electrical stimulation comes via the perforant path and ends up the population of excitatory postsynaptic potentials which determine the strength of the synaptic connection (as I have listed in my notes that I took from my understanding from page 439 of Physiology of Behavior by Neil R. Carlson). The strength of the synaptic connection is an indication of how strongly the memory will be encoded or not thus also determining its final destination in our short or long term memories and what subsets each portion of that memory will find itself in. For instance, you may remember a certain characteristic about a situation or experience more than the whole of the experience so the strength of that portion of the synaptic connection will fire stronger allowing the long term potentiation to occur, than that of a characteristic you did not pay much attention to and let fade to the background thus an LTP will not occur. In order for an LTP to occur, it must have activation of synapses and depolarization of postsynaptic neurons. Once that is achieved basic memory formation has occurred.
Subsequently, seizures can occur if there is a biochemical abnormality in the human body GABA secreting neurons that inhibit large numbers of GABA to be secreted causing epileptic seizures to occur. Such was the case when Henry Molaison had to have his hippocampus and entorhinal cortex removed due to continuous seizures that impaired his life dramatically after a bicycle accident he had at age 7. He then had both of those sections of his brain removed in an effort to stop the seizures. The surgery was a success however he permanently lost the ability to form new memories. He was, however, able to learn new motor skills but never attach those motor skills to an event in which he learned them; which is sad for H.M. since learning through our experiences by attaching our learned information to a perceptual time and place when we learned it, allows us to achieve greater learning ability. It was an asset to the neurobiology field since it shed considerable light on how important the hippocampus is to the establishment and organization of our memories, which is infinitely important to our depth of knowledge.
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