What is the role of medial temporal lobe in memory?
The medial temporal lobe (MTL) includes the hippocampus, amygdala and parahippocampal regions, and is crucial for episodic and spatial memory. MTL memory function consists of distinct processes such as encoding, consolidation and retrieval. After encoding, memory traces are stabilized by consolidation.
What is memory consolidation?
Summary: Our long-term memory is consolidated when we sleep. Short-term memory traces in the hippocampus, an area deep in the brain, are then relocated to more outer parts of the brain. An international team of neuroscientists now shows how a three-step brain oscillation plays an important part in that process.
What is the purpose of memory consolidation?
Through the consolidation process, the brain creates a sort of neural map, allowing memories to be retrieved when they are needed. People often think of memories as permanent, but just because a memory has been consolidated does not mean that it can’t be lost.
Which brain region is required for memory consolidation?
hippocampus
The hippocampus is essential for the consolidation of both short-term and long-term memories. Damage to this area of the brain can render a person incapable of making new memories and may even affect older memories that have not been fully consolidated.
What causes memory problems in the medial temporal lobe?
Problems with learning new verbal material results from dysfunction of the dominant lobe, with impaired learning of new non-verbal information (e.g. music) resulting from lesions of the non-dominant lobe. The medial temporal lobe memory system includes the hippocampus formation and the adjacent parahippocampal and perirhinal cortices.
How are MTL structures related to the consolidation of memories?
Squire and Alvarez also proposed the idea that MTL structures play a role in the consolidation of memories within the neocortex by providing a binding area for multiple cortical regions involved in the initial encoding of the memory.
Where does memory consolidation occur in the brain?
Through anatomical and functional interactions with other brain regions, the basolateral amygdala (BLA) modulates neurobiological processing leading to increased memory strength. This review focuses on our current understanding of memory consolidation and how it is regulated at the brain system and biochemical levels. Cristina M. Alberini,
Is the amygdala part of the medial temporal lobe?
Another core limbic structure in the medial temporal lobe is the amygdala, which drives numerous types of emotional responses and interact with other regions to encode emotional valence in various situations: e.g., with the hippocampus to couple emotions to memory and with the medial prefrontal cortex to attribute valence to environmental cues.
