Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
Articles 1 - 2 of 2
Full-Text Articles in Psychology
Aging And Pattern Separation, Nathan Giles, Dr. C. Brock Kirwan
Aging And Pattern Separation, Nathan Giles, Dr. C. Brock Kirwan
Journal of Undergraduate Research
It is widely known that as we age, our cognitive functions start to decrease, especially when it comes to memory. Memory in the human brain has major processes in the medial temporal lobe, specifically the hippocampus. It is widely accepted that in older adults, the areas in the medial temporal lobe start to atrophy and this decrease in brain tissue volume is what leads to difficulty in memory (Van Petten, 2004). Further, as we age the rate of new neuron growth (termed neurogenesis) in the dentate gyrus region of the hippocampus slows down (Small, 2001). Neurogenesis in the dentate gyrus …
Gains And Losses, Cassie Widdison, Dr. Christopher Kirwan
Gains And Losses, Cassie Widdison, Dr. Christopher Kirwan
Journal of Undergraduate Research
Regions of the brain, such as the medial temporal lobe (MTL), including the hippocampus and the adjacent MTL cortex, facilitate recognition memory performance (Squire, Stark, & Clark, 2004). The hippocampus is known for its ability to encode and retrieve memories through two processes called pattern separation and pattern completion (Mcclelland, Mcnaughton, & Oreilly, 1995). Pattern separation is a computational process in which the memory representations of similar stimuli are made as dissimilar as possible. This allows one to recall differences between old stimuli and similar, but novel stimuli. Pattern completion is a computational process where a memory representation is retrieved …