Describes how a behavioral system in Aplysia (marine snail) can be used to examine mechanisms of several forms of learning at different levels of analysis: behavioral, cell-physiological, ultrastructural, and molecular. Focusing on short-term sensitization, suggests how molecular mechanisms can be extended to explain long-term memory and classical…

Focuses on the brain processes and brain systems involved in learning and memory from a neuropsychological perspective of analysis. Reports findings related to the locus of memory storage, types of memory and knowledge, and memory consolidation. Models of animal memory are also examined. An extensive reference list is included. (ML)

Provides comments on research studies related to memory systems, considering those exploring the nature of memory traces. One researcher suggests that memory trace circuits are extremely localized (as opposed to being diffuse), such that a lesion in a rabbit's brain can completely destroy the trace for a particular learned response. (JN)

Food preferences set by delayed visceral effects facilitate memory research and predator control. (Author/RH)

Priming is a nonconscious form of human memory. Presents evidence and reasoning that priming and perceptual identification are expressions of a single perceptual representation system. (YP)

Presents a hypothesis about the biochemical processes involved in memory storage. The postulated mechanism is initiated by a signal that is unusual but not unlikely to occur and produces an irreversible change in a key component of synaptic chemistry. Other features of the mechanism and experiments supporting the hypothesis are considered. (JN)

Reviews the features of two classes of learning theories. Reports evidence supporting a statistical configuration" theory, suggesting that temporal patterns of neurophysiological waves in the average activity of extensive anatomical brain regions may constitute the basis of subjective experience. (AL)

Marihuana affected recognition processes of human subjects, and, with respect to initial learning, also affected acquisition processes involved in the storage of information. (AL)

Reports evidence from two studies of three-month-old infants indicating that normal memory retrieval is a time-locked process. In addition, individual data suggest that the retrieval may be continuous rather than discontinuous. (JN)

Describes an experiment in which a subject spent more than 230 hours of practice in a laboratory and was able to increase his memory span from 7 to 79 digits. The results suggest that practice with an appropriate mnemonic system can increase memory performance. (Author/SA)

Describes the subdivisions of the human peri-Sylvian language cortex which were determined by stimulation mapping during craniotomies of four adult patients. (SA)

Progress is now being made toward ascertaining the specific effects of rearing conditions on brain and behavior, the properties of the environment that contribute to these effects, and the developmental periods in which brain tissue is most sensitive to environmental modification. (Author/RH)

Nineteen normal male subjects received one milligram of physotigmine or one milligram of saline by slow intravenous infusion on two nonconsecutive days. Physostigmine significantly enhanced storage of information into long-term memory. Retrieval of information from long-term memory was improved. Short-term memory processes were not significantly…

Discusses the findings of a study that involves the testing of the pharmaceutical Ampakines on laboratory rats. Rats administered Ampakines learn remarkably quickly to navigate new mazes. The question now is does the drug make the rats alert or memory enhanced. Implications for treatment in humans is discussed. (ZWH)

Describes research which indicates that a number of peptide hormones act directly on the brain to affect learning and behavior. Investigations are currently being conducted to determine if these substances can be used to treat learning disorders or to improve the memories of normal people. (MLH)