DAY 4 How does the brain learn remember

DAY 4: How does the brain learn & remember?

What is unique about the brain during teen years? Prefrontal cortex Synapses Pruning Plasticity

Learning & Memory What is learning? What is memory? Are there different types of each?

Phases of Memory

Types of Memory Declarative (“What”) • Facts and events linked to time & place (sister’s birthday, last dr appt) • You have to actively think about/recall it Procedural (“How”) • General skills & operations (how to ride a bike, drive a car) • Don’t actively think about, just remember how to

Brain regions important for learning & memory Procedural Memory (motor skills): Striatum, cerebellum Declarative Memory (events, facts): Hippocampus Emotional Memory: Amygdala

What’s happening in the brain when we learn? Cortex: Conscious thinking & processing information in working memory (learning) Hippocampus: Translates information from working memory to long-term memory (storing)

Let’s test our memories! Free Recall Experiment

How did it go? • Which words did you recall? • What strategy did you use to remember them? • What do you notice about their positioning in the original list?

Probability of recalling each of the 10 words in the list

How did scientists learn about memory in the brain? Scientists learned from people who had brain injuries or disorders. Video about patient HM

What did we learn from HM? • What was wrong with HM? • What types of memory did he still have? • What conclusion did this lead scientists to?

Pause to Reflect What do you think life would be like if you didn’t have your hippocampi, and couldn’t make any new memories?

Short break

What is the brain made up of at the smallest level?

Brain cell = Neuron Cells in the brain that carry messages through signals to other parts of the brain

Structure of Basic Cell vs. Neuron

How does the brain learn/ make memories? Connections Between Neurons = Synapses

How are memories stored? Strengthening signals & new synapses

We have 86 billion neurons in our brains, about the number of stars there are in the Milky Way. A single neuron has on average 7, 000 synapses.

Let’s explore neurons in the exhibit!

Reflection Time Think about what you did and learned today. • What does that make you think? • Where do you feel confused? • What are you still curious to learn more about?