Memory, Learning, and Higher Function: A Cellular View

The basis of learning appears to be a network of interconnected adaptive elements (such as those found in the brain) by means of which transforms between inputs and outputs are performed. By adaptive I mean that the element can change in some systematic manner and in so doing alter the transform between input and output. In living systems, transmission within the neural network involves cpded nerve impulses and other physical chemical processes that form reflections of sensory stimuli and incipient motor behavior. The properties of the transmission network become significant determinants of behavior and depend on the mechanisms of neuronal adaptation, the means by which the connectivities between different neurons are modified. Particular paths through the network become labeled with reference to specific inputs and outputs. The network then operates through labeled interconnections linking specific elements within the network and through the mechanisms that underlie each element's adaptation. The adap­ tive features are crucial to learning and imply some associated, underlying mnemonic process. The labeling is of consequence with regard to the resulting specificities of stimulus reception and motor performance that characterize adaptive behavior. Memory involves time-dependent information processing relying on en­ coding and retrieval as well as storage itself. In the brain, engrams can be defined as those elemental adaptive changes that take place when learning and memory storage occur. Persistent engrammatic modifications of neuronal structure commonly arise through the same associative mechanisms responsi­ ble for learned behavior [397, 486, 759, 1020].

Table of Contents:
1 Commonsense Views of Memory and Learning Obtained from Philosophy.- Knowledge, Recollection, Perception.- Inference and Experience.- Sensation, Neural Activation, Neural Adaptation.- Feedback: Orderly Learning and Memory.- Cybernetic Analysis.- 2 The Reflex and Behavior.- The Reflex.- Adaptive Reflexes.- Behavioral Outcomes of Simple Adaptive Reflex Operations.- Review of Behavioral Outcomes of Repetitively Induced Reflex Adaptations.- Behavioral Outcomes of Associatively Induced Reflex Adaptations.- 3 Associative Processes and Behavioral Psychology.- Philosophic Significance of Association.- Critical Variables Controlling Associatively Induced Adaptations.- What Happens to Networks of Adaptive Reflexes as a Consequence of Stimulus Association?.- What Happens to Adaptive Reflexes as a Consequence of the State of the Organism?.- Specific Behavior as a Consequence of Specific Reflex Operations Altered by Specific Neural Adaptations.- Differences in Motor and Sensory Adaptation Inferred from Patterns of Motor and Sensory Generalization.- Mapping the Reflex Through Sets of Adaptive Neurons.- 4 Cellular Correlates of Learned Behavior.- E1ectrophysiologic Correlates of Behavior.- The Tracking of Engrams.- Neural Stimulation and Behavioral Changes.- Neural Stimulation and Cellular Changes.- Summary.- 5 Subcellular Substrates of Learning and Memory.- Theories of Cellular Plasticity.- Ionic Conductance Mechanisms Mediating Neuronal Changes.- Critical Variables Controlling Changes in Membrane Conductance.- Control of Neuronal Adaptation.- Selected Techniques for Studying Cellular Plasticity.- 6 Reflex Circuitry Supporting Higher Functions.- to Higher Functions.- The Mnemonic Process and Amnesia.- Korsakoff’s Syndrome.- Stable versus Dynamic Memory Storage.- Mnemonic FeaturesRevealed by Electrical Stimulation of the Brain.- Interconnected Adaptive Networks of Functional Significance.- Complexities of Sensory Perception and Motor Synthesis Revealed by Lesions and by Exceptional Stimuli.- Agnosia, Apraxia, and Aphasia.- Commissural and Transcallosal Control of Information Processing in Split-Brain Experiments.- Evidence for the Separation of Perceptual and Conceptual Functions.- Perception and Primary Image Construction.- Conceptualization, Linguistics, and Extended Image Formation.- Can One Have Abstract Conceptualization Without Linguistics?.- What is Perceptual Function Physiologically?.- What Is Conceptual Function Physiologically?.- Higher Function and the Organization of the Neural Network.- 7 Cybernetics: A Means for Analysis of Neural Networks.- Constraints.- Processing of Information by Automata.- Analysis.- General Theories of Information Handling.- Specific Theories of Line Labeled Information Handling.- Evaluation of the Merit of the Analysis.- Epilogue.- References.