Patterns of Learning and Memory

Abstract

Learning and memory have been classified into various patterns in physiology and psychology, although cellular architectures underlying these patterns of information acquisition and storage remain largely unknown. It is critically important to reveal the correlation of memory cells and their circuits with various memory patterns in order to have a comprehensive view of learning and memory as well as develop therapeutic strategies for memory deficits. In the acquisition of information, knowledge, and experiences, learning has been classified into associative learning and nonassociative learning, in which associative learning is a major style in information acquisition. In terms of the pattern of memories to acquired signals, various classifications are assigned based on memory contents. For instance, declarative (explicit) memory or nondeclarative (implicit) memory is judged whether memories are associated with consciousness state or not. In declarative memory, episodic memory refers to the storage of events, place, time, their associated emotions, and other conception-based knowledge in relevance to specific experience, whereas semantic memory involves episodic memory relevant to generalized and summarized knowledge, theories, and views. Based on input and output, there are working memory and perceptual memory. Working memory is featured as a short-term memory from the sensory input guidance to the processing manipulation, whereas perceptual memory is featured as long-term memories to visual, auditory, and other perceptual signals. In terms of the capacity and efficiency of signal retrievals about perceptual memory, eidetic memory is used to describe that the signals learned in short time can be retrieved vividly, especially in the childhood stage. Regardless of these patterns classified for learning and memory, the purpose of studying memory formation and retrieval is to uncover cellular architectures that are suitable to interpret all of these types of memories. In this chapter, author intends to figure out a diagram constructed from these types of memories and to propose testable cellular networks for them.