Active and inactive memory

The system "Where?" - parietal cortex. Then the “What?” System (knowledge of the object) and the “Where?” System (spatial characteristics of the object) are merged on separate neurons alone.

Active memory is the one we currently use, working with a part of information retrieved from the storage or just received. This information must be kept active.

Memory may be inactive - long-term storage of information, which we are not working with now.

High-frequency work of the brain is the main process of transferring information from the inactive form to the active one.

There is a problem of memory vulnerability, there are cases of memory loss - amnesia (anterograde, retrograde, etc.). Short-term memory, but not long-term memory is subject to negative influences.

Retrograde amnesia concerns recent events, they have not yet moved to a long-term repository. The concept of active memory allows us to explain the fact of retrograde amnesia - negative effects destroy active traces. Long-term memory can also be destroyed - before a negative impact (for example, an electric shock), there is a reminder of the traces lying in the long-term memory or the situations in which these traces appeared. That is, the trace, which is well preserved, is refreshed with a new similar trace, that is, the trace from the long-term inactive memory is translated into an active short-term one.

The method of testing short-term and long-term memory - the impact of an electric shock - is not quite adequate.

Writing information to long-term memory occurs through a consolidation process. When we translate information from long-term memory into short-term memory, and then return it, we return it in a slightly modified form. There is a kind of rewriting of information - reconsolidation. Anterograde amnesia destroys the rewritable information.

Lower temporal cortex - the first signs of the surrounding world are formed, it is also an associative sensory system. The recognition of an external stimulus occurs due to the recognition of the image - the process of perception, but the memory also works with this system - there is a combination of the functions of perception and memory - storage and recognition. That is, the perception is based on memory, the updating of information is a memory that is triggered by a signal from the outside world. But you can remember the image - the frontal cortex sends an impulse and makes the image arise, remember it. In the 1950s, Penfield proved that the temporal cortex is associated with declarative memory — a mechanical effect on the brain. The proof of the function of the lower temporal cortex in preserving the image of the world is all neural research (Bill Clinton's neuron). Some neurons are excited only on the object, and some only on certain signs (experiments on monkeys). Neurons are networked, which are distributed in the nervous system.

The distribution of declarative memory is the temporal cortex, the medial temporal lobe, the thalamus, the prefrontal cortex.

Destructions that lead to mental blindness Cuver-Buci syndrome - destruction of the medial temporal lobe, hippocampus (the patient has ceased to recognize familiar faces) - destruction of the thalamic structures of the brain.

Proof of the participation of the inferior temporal cortex - MRI - specialists remember professional knowledge, the presentation of significant objects leads to the excitation of powerful foci.

The medial temporal lobe, the main role belongs to the hippocampus - here comes a signal from the inferior temporal cortex, then goes into the prefrontal cortex. The prefrontal cortex is activated during active work with information.

Repeatedly engaged in the destruction of areas of the cortex, thalamus, temporal lobe. Before and after the destruction, we performed experiments on the presence of declarative memory (delay of different duration). We found areas in the medial temporal lobe that are important for the preservation of images. If the delay is more than 8-10 seconds, then the monkey no longer remembers the object.

Diencephalic complex - thalamus. The new memory is not preserved, and the old one is preserved (Korsakoff syndrome, Alzheimer's disease - beginning in the hippocampus).