Long-term memory

Long-term memory (LTM) is memory that can last as little as a few days or as long as decades. It differs structurally and functionally from working memory or short-term memory, which ostensibly stores items for only around 20 seconds. Biologically, short-term memory is a temporary potentiation of neural connections that can become long-term memory through the process of rehearsal and meaningful association. Much is not known about the underlying biological mechanisms of long-term memory, but the process of long-term potentiation, which involves a physical change in the structure of neurons, has been proposed as the mechanism by which short-term memories move into long-term storage. Notably, the time scale involved at each level of memory processing remains under investigation.

As long-term memory is subject to fading in the natural forgetting process, several recalls/retrievals of memory may be needed for long-term memories to last for years, dependent also on the depth of processing. Individual retrievals can take place in increasing intervals in accordance with the principle of spaced repetition. This can happen quite naturally through reflection or deliberate recall (a.k.a. recapitulation or recollection), often dependent on the perceived importance of the material.

Capacity

The brain stores long term information by growing additional synapses between neurons. Since the brain has approximately 10¹⁵ synapses, one can argue that brain has a maximum capacity of about 100 TByte, possibly more if one synapse can store more than 1 bit of information. By no means do humans store that much information. Experiments in the mid 1980s showed that humans can store only 1-2 bits/second in their long term memory. The cumulative amount of data stored in the brain over a 70 year lifetime is therefore only in the order of 125 MByte. cite journal
author = Kandel, E.R.
title = The molecular biology of memory storage: A dialogue between gene and synapses
journal = Science
year = 2001
volume = 294
pages = 1030–1038
number = 5544
doi = 10.1126/science.1067020
pmid = 11691980] cite journal
author = Landauer,Thomas K.
title = How much do people remember? Some estimates of the quantity of learned information in long-term memory
journal = Cognitive Science: A Multidisciplinary Journal
year = 1986
volume = 10
pages = 477–493
number = 4
doi = 10.1207/s15516709cog1004_4]

Duration

Studies undertaken by Bahrick et al can predict that long term memory can indeed remember certain information for almost a lifetime. However factors can in fact reduce or extinguish information completely. Childhood amnesia is a factor effecting long term memories duration, there are very few people who can remember information or events before the age of 3 or 4.

Encoding of information

Long term memory encodes information semantically for storage, as researched by Baddeley.

leep

Some theories consider sleep to be an important factor in establishing well-organized long-term memories. "(See also sleep and learning.)"

According to Tarnow's theory, long term memories are stored in dream format (reminiscent of the Penfield & Rasmussen’s findings that electrical excitations of cortex give rise to experiences similar to dreams). During waking life an executive function interprets long term memory consistent with reality checking (Tarnow, 2003). [Tarnow, E. (2003) "How Dreams And Memory May Be Related" Neuro-Psychoanalysis 5(2), 177-182 and also http://cogprints.org/2068/]

Types of memory

The brain does not store memories in one unified structure, as might be seen in a computer's hard disk drive. Instead, different types of memory are stored in different regions of the brain. LTM is typically divided up into two major headings: declarative memory and implicit memory (or procedural memory).cite web |url=http://thebrain.mcgill.ca/flash/a/a_07/a_07_p/a_07_p_tra/a_07_p_tra.html#3 |title=THE BRAIN FROM TOP TO BOTTOM |format= |work= |accessdate=]

#Declarative memory refers to all memories that are consciously available. These are encoded by the hippocampus, entorhinal cortex, and perirhinal cortex, but consolidated and stored elsewhere in the cortex. The precise location of storage is unknown, but the temporal cortex has been proposed as a likely candidate. Declarative memory also has two major subdivisions:
#*Episodic memory refers to memory for specific events in time
#*Semantic memory refers to knowledge about the external world, such as the function of a pencil.
#Procedural memory refers to the use of objects or movements of the body, such as how exactly to use a pencil or ride a bicycle. This type of memory is encoded and probably stored by the cerebellum and the striatum.

There are various other categorizations of memory and types of memory that have captured research interest. Prospective memory (its complement: retrospective memory) is an example.

Emotional memory, the memory for events that evoke a particularly strong emotion, is another. Emotion and memory is a domain that can involve both declarative and procedural memory processes. Emotional memories are consciously available, but elicit a powerful, unconscious physiological reaction. They also have a unique physiological pathway that involves strong connections from the amygdala into the prefrontal cortex, but much weaker connections running back from the prefrontal cortex to the amgydala.Fact|date=September 2007

Disorders of memory

Minor everyday slips and lapses of memory are fairly commonplace, and may increase naturally with age, when ill, or when under stress (Reason J.). [Reason, J. (1995) Self-report questionnaires in cognitive psychology: have they delivered the goods? in Attention: Selection, Awareness, and Control (Eds.) Alan Baddeley & Lawrence Weiskrantz ] Some women may experience more memory lapses following the onset of the menopause. [http://www.nymemory.org/menmemandmoo.html] More serious problems with memory generally occur due to traumatic brain injury or neurodegenerative disease [http://www.memorydisorder.org/patientcare/dementiafaqs.htm#dementia] :

Everyday memory problems

The everyday experience of memory problems is the problem of failed recall, forgetting. The tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon is particularly frustrating because the person trying to remember feels that the memory is available. Failing to remember something in the situation in which it would have been useful leads to regret.

Traumatic brain injury

The majority of findings about memory have been the result of studies that lesioned specific brain regions in rats or primates, but some of the most important work has been the result of accidental or inadvertent brain trauma. The most famous case in memory studies is the case study of HM, who had parts of his hippocampus, parahippocampal cortices, and surrounding tissue removed in an attempt to cure his epilepsy. His subsequent total anterograde amnesia and partial retrograde amnesia provided the first evidence for the localization of memory function, and further clarified the differences between declarative and procedural memory.

Neurodegenerative diseases

Many neurodegenerative diseases can cause memory loss. Some of the most prevalent (and consequently, most intensely researched) include Alzheimer's Disease, Dementia, Huntington's Disease, Multiple Sclerosis, and Parkinson's Disease. None act specifically on memory; instead memory loss is often a casualty of generalized neuronal deterioration. Currently, these illnesses are irreversible, but research into stem cells, psychopharmacology, and genetic engineering hold much promise.

Biological underpinnings at the cellular level

Long term memory is dependent upon the construction of new proteins within the cellular body, particularly transmitters, receptors, and new synapse pathways that reinforce the communicative strength between neurons. The production of new proteins devoted to synapse reinforcement is triggered after the release of certain signaling substances (such as calcium within hippocampal neurons) in the cell. In the case of hippocampal cells, this release is dependent upon the expulsion of magnesium (a binding molecule) that is expelled after significant and repetitive synaptic signaling. The temporary expulsion of magnesium frees NMDA receptors to release calcium in the cell, a signal that leads to gene transcription and the construction of reinforcing proteins. Neihoff, Debra (2005) "The Language of Life 'How cells Communicate in Health and Disease'" Speak Memory, 210-223. For more information see long-term potentiation (LTP).

One of the newly synthesized proteins in LTP is also critical for maintaining long-term memory. This protein is an autonomously active form of the enzyme protein kinase C (PKC), known as PKMζ. PKMζ maintains the activity-dependent enhancement of synaptic strength and inhibiting PKMζ erases established long-term memories, without affecting short-term memory or, once the inhibitor is eliminated, the ability to encode and store new long-term memories is restored.

Also BDNF is important for the persistence of long-term memories. [Cite journal
author = Pedro Bekinschtein, Martín Cammarota, Cynthia Katche, Leandro Slipczuk, Janine I. Rossato, Andrea Goldin, Ivan Izquierdo, and Jorge H. Medina
title = BDNF is essential to promote persistence of long-term memory storage
journal = Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA
url = http://www.pnas.org/content/105/7/2711.abstract
doi = 10.1073/pnas.0711863105
month = February
year = 2008
volume = 105
issue = 7
pages = 2711-2716]

References

ee also

* Aging and memory
* Emotion and memory
* Long-term potentiation
* Contrast Short-term memory