Description
To understand how the brain learns and remembers requires an integration of psychological concepts and behavioral methods with mechanisms of synaptic plasticity and systems neuroscience. The Neurobiology of Learning and Memory, Second Edition, provides a synthesis of this interdisciplinary field. Each chapter makes the key concepts transparent and accessible to a reader with minimal background in either neurobiology or psychology and is extensively illustrated with full-color photographs and figures depicting important concepts and experimental data. Like the First Edition, the Second Edition is organized into three parts. However, each part has been expanded to include new chapters or reorganized to incorporate new findings and concepts.
Part One introducesthe idea that synapses modified by experience provide the basis for memory storage. It next describes the long-term potentiation methodology used to study how synapses are modified and concepts needed to understand the organization of synapses. The remaining chapters are organized around the idea that the synaptic changes that support long-term potentiation evolve in four overlapping stages referred to as (a) generation, (b) stabilization, (c) consolidation, and (d) maintenance. The goal of each chapter is to reveal that each stage depends on unique molecular processes and to describe what they are.
Part Two builds on this foundation to show how molecules and cellular processes that have been identified from studies of synaptic plasticity also participate in the making ofmemories. It discusses some of the basic conceptual issues researchers face in trying to relate memory to synaptic molecules and describes some of the behavioral and neurobiological methods that are used. The chapters describing the processes involved in memory formation and consolidation have been extensively modified to provide a more detailed account of the molecular events that are engaged to ensure that established memories endure. The chapters on memory modulation and the fate of retrieved memories have been extensively modified to provide a more in-depth account of the relevant processes.
Part Three is organized around the multiple memory systems view--that different neural systems have evolved to store the content contained in our experience. It features discussion of themedial-temporal hippocampal system that supports episodic memory, the concept of systems consolidation, and its relationship to Ribot's law--that memories become resistant to disruption as they age. The cortical-striatal system and its relationship to what are called behavioral actions and habits is described, and the book ends with a discussion of neural systems involved in the acquisition and removal of emotional memories.
Part One introducesthe idea that synapses modified by experience provide the basis for memory storage. It next describes the long-term potentiation methodology used to study how synapses are modified and concepts needed to understand the organization of synapses. The remaining chapters are organized around the idea that the synaptic changes that support long-term potentiation evolve in four overlapping stages referred to as (a) generation, (b) stabilization, (c) consolidation, and (d) maintenance. The goal of each chapter is to reveal that each stage depends on unique molecular processes and to describe what they are.
Part Two builds on this foundation to show how molecules and cellular processes that have been identified from studies of synaptic plasticity also participate in the making ofmemories. It discusses some of the basic conceptual issues researchers face in trying to relate memory to synaptic molecules and describes some of the behavioral and neurobiological methods that are used. The chapters describing the processes involved in memory formation and consolidation have been extensively modified to provide a more detailed account of the molecular events that are engaged to ensure that established memories endure. The chapters on memory modulation and the fate of retrieved memories have been extensively modified to provide a more in-depth account of the relevant processes.
Part Three is organized around the multiple memory systems view--that different neural systems have evolved to store the content contained in our experience. It features discussion of themedial-temporal hippocampal system that supports episodic memory, the concept of systems consolidation, and its relationship to Ribot's law--that memories become resistant to disruption as they age. The cortical-striatal system and its relationship to what are called behavioral actions and habits is described, and the book ends with a discussion of neural systems involved in the acquisition and removal of emotional memories.
Published online 2014 Sep 3.
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Jerry W. Rudy
The Neurobiology of Learning and Memory.
2nd Edition. 2014. Sinauer Associates, Inc.: Sunderland, MA. ISBN: (Hardcover) 978-1605352305. US $78.16. 435 p.
The Neurobiology of Learning and Memory.
2nd Edition. 2014. Sinauer Associates, Inc.: Sunderland, MA. ISBN: (Hardcover) 978-1605352305. US $78.16. 435 p.
Rudy’s text is well-suited for the student of neuroscience and should also find an audience among constituents of peripheral fields such as pyschology or biology. The reader will be served well to have some familiarity with the underlying biochemistry, but an ample review of foundational material is provided. It manages to capture the breadth of the subject without becoming too dense.
This text provides nearly a full chapter of historical context in the introduction, with additional anecdotal details peppered throughout the remainder of the book; these make for an enjoyable read. Each scientific theory is supported by published experimental findings and case studies. The book strives to remain impartial in the presentation of controversial theories, providing scientific evidence and suggesting interpretations without imposing definitive conclusions when not warranted. Influential experiments and their results are described in detail and copiously illustrated.
The topic of memory is covered comprehensively from a neurobiologic perspective, encompassing the full hierarchy of the brain from molecules to complete neuroanatomical structures, under the overarching topics of synaptic plasticity, molecules and memory, and memory systems. While informed by psychological insights, the book makes clear the distinction between the approaches to understanding memory taken by psychologists and neurobiologists.
In Part I, the synapse is introduced as a foundational component of memory. The molecular underpinnings of synaptic plasticity are described. The central concepts of long-term potentiation and memory traces are examined, down to the minute details of relevant protein synthesis processes.
Part II elucidates how molecules contribute to memory formation, consolidation, and maintenance. In this section, we learn the role of the NMDA, AMPA, and glutamate receptors in memory formation; how the amygdala and hormones such as epinephrine and the glucocorticoids might modulate memory; and memory retrieval and reconsolidation theory.
The final part of the text moves up to the level of neural systems, focusing first on the role of the hippocampus in memory formation, segueing into the medial-temporal hippocampal system and the cortico-striatal systems. It covers Ribot's Law, episodic memory, theories of instrumental behavior (how outcomes may modify behavior), and closes by relating fear to memory phenomena.
The student or researcher who has made it their mission to understand how memory works will find this text a great resource in orienting them to the current thinking on this topic to date.
Articles from The Yale Journal of Biology and Medicine are provided here courtesy of Yale Journal of Biology and Medicine