The Creation of Lasting Memories Reading Passage
The Creation of Lasting Memories Reading Passage
Paragraph A: Multiple studies of the cognitive processes underlying memory consolidation (permanent memories) have required the treatment and retraining of animal and human subjects to complete an early task. These have vastly contributed to our knowledge.
Paragraph B: Bernard Agranoff showed that administering creatine supplementation inhibitors had a ground-breaking work with goldfish that caused goldfish to unlearn everything they had previously learned. Moreover, before teaching the fish he administered blockers of the synthesis of proteins immediately. Surprisingly, the creation of protein inhibitors hindered declarative memory yet had no effect on short-term memory, the fish learned the task normally but quickly forgot it.
Paragraph C: Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), which inhibits declarative memory preserves short-term memory, according to mounting evidence. Ivan Izquierdo discovered that certain pharmacological treatments can impair short-term memory without affecting memory development. On the flip side, a theory was put forth that long-term memory and short-term memory are not dependent on one another. This was suggested by Canadian psychologist Donald Hebb in 1949.
Paragraph D: These results demonstrate that our experiences generate simultaneous and potentially separate periods of memory, each with its own lifespan. The reason for this is unknown for all of these clinical and experimental trial results strongly show that the brain makes recent and remote memories differently.
Paragraph E: To adapt to an environment that is always changing, we need a memory that can be generated quickly. The majority of contemporary building codes, for example, stipulate that stair step heights must be the same. After ascending or descending a few steps, we immediately remember their heights and think that the rest will be the same. If they do not correspond, we may trip and fall. This situation is helpful for lawyers but surely not for all of us and insurance companies. It would be of little use if we could only recall the step heights after several hours have passed and the memory has solidified.
Paragraph F: The majority of this theory's support comes from clinical and experimental data that medications and illnesses affecting brain function can have an effect on long-term memory development. Many other sorts of evidence show that after learning, memories gradually solidify over time. Human participants educated in visual skill showed no improvement until eight hours after the training was complete, and then showed even greater improvement the following day, as reported by Avi Kami and Dov Sagi. Also, the mastery was maintained over a long period of time.
Paragraph G: In addition, studies employing human brain scans to carefully assess neuronal activity induced by learning have revealed that these changes linger for hours after learning. Reza Shadmehr and Henry Holcomb performed innovative research using functions available of the brain to assess brain activity in various regions of the brain shortly after training human volunteers in a motor learning task including arm and hand movements. Although the subjects' performance remained consistent for several hours following training, their brain function did not; various regions of the brain were extremely active at various times over the several hours of training. The activity changed from the prefrontal cortex to the recognized movement-regulating motor cortex and cerebellar cortex. Integration of the motor ability appeared to include activation of many neural networks, which maintained underlying brain processes.
Paragraph H: In addition, there is evidence that learning-induced associations in the firing of neurons in the cerebral cortex persist for days following training. In a series of extensive experiments with rats implanted with diodes in the auditory cortex, Norman Weinberger found that after a narrow band tone was recurrently paired with footshock, nerve cells in the auditory cortex reacted more firmly to the particular tone and less strongly to other tones with various frequencies. Inquisitiveness, the uniqueness of the neurons' responses to the particular tone used in learning remained higher for a number of days after training had concluded.
Paragraph I: Why our long-term memories grow slowly is not easily explicable. It is definitely puzzling why we have a type of memory on which we must rely for many hours, days, or even a lifetime, yet which is so sensitive to disturbance quickly after its formation. The brain circuitry that centralizes long-term memory over time may have been an evolutionary afterthought. In addition, the size and complexity of our mammalian brains may result in slower memory integration. These beliefs are simple to debunk. Every known animal species possesses both short- and long-term memory and is subject to forgetfulness. Birds, bees, mollusks, fish, and rodents have long-term memory, similar to humans. Memory consolidation has existed and been conserved since the beginning of evolution.
Paragraph J: Even though there appears to be no compelling reason to believe that a biological system such as the brain could not rapidly develop a long-lasting memory, this is not the case. Memory consolidation must therefore fulfill a crucial adaptive purpose or function. There is strong evidence that slow consolidation is adaptive, as it allows neurobiological mechanisms to adjust the memory intensity for experiences immediately after learning. Intriguingly, a substantial body of evidence indicates that therapies taken quickly after training may both improve and damage memory.
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