Learning and Memory
Study Questions
Remember that you should choose only one answer at a time. Learning and Memory 

1. We believe that activity dependent synaptic plasticity is occurring in the neocortex because that is where memories are hypothesized to be stored. What indirect evidence is there that this mechanism may in fact be available for the storage of memories in the neocortex?
 1. Synapses form in response to behavioral experiences likely to induce memories such as rearing in a complex environment. This is shown as an increase in neocortical gray matter and while it reflects a change in many non-synaptic structures such as blood vessels and glia there definitely seems to be more contacts onto neurons (25% more).
2. Adult rats trained on a maze or motor task show increases in the number of synaptic contacts made onto a cell. This effect can be lateralized suggesting that the phenomenon is not a general increase due to increased activity but a specific one related to the task that was learned.
3. Similar effects of rearing and training are seen across various species suggesting a common process that has been conserved over evolution.
4. Changes in response to rearing/occur rapidly and follow a time course similar to the behavioral phenomenon.
5. Developmental Plasticity is seen in these regions as a change in the width of ocular dominance column when visual input to one eye is interrupted.
6. Activity dependent plasticity is seen in invertebrates (Aplysia) and subcortical regions in mammals (NMR).
7. All of the above
8. Two of the above
9. None of the above

2. There is a technique whereby one can visualize the concentration of calcium inside the cell. This is accomplished by injecting the cell with a substance that fluoresces when it binds to calcium. Thus when calcium enters the cell it will bind to this substance and produce a visual signal that can be recorded using a camera. Under these conditions

A. cells will become very bright immediately upon injection of the dye.
B. dendrites of the injected cell will fluoresce in response to stimulation of an afferent pathway at 100Hz.
C. The synapse of a pathway activated at 100Hz will show an increase in their efficacy 30 minutes after the conditioning stimulation.
D. The soma will fluoresce if GABA is applied to the extracellular solution.
E. Thompson
F. all of the above
G. Three of the above
H. none of the above

3. (T/F) Calmodulin activates PKC when bound to calcium.
True
False

4.(T/F) Calcium calmodulin kinase II can be active in the absence of high levels of calcium.
True
False

5. The intracellular calcium concentration is correlated with the induction of LTP and LTD. Which of the following is not an established way of increasing intracellular calcium levels in the postsynaptic synaptic region?

A. Activation of IP3 receptors in the spine apparatus.
B. Opening of NMDA receptors in response to depolarization and glutamate binding
C. Opening of voltage dependent calcium channels in response to binding of glutamate to AMPA receptors.
D. Opening of voltage dependent calcium channels in response to binding of glutamate to mGlu receptors.
E. Activation of NMDA receptors by NMDA and raised potassium levels.


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OAMG 1997