Learning & Memory

  The importance of memory consolidation, as the stage through which unstable and short-lived memories become stabilized and long-term ones, has always been an area that attracted both attention and research. The classical point of view thought that the consolidation is a chronological process, the one in which the hippocampus plays the leading role. But the most recent research has given a unified theory that provides a new position about consolidation of memories in the brain. According to the unified theory, memory consolidation involves two main processes: local consolidation and the systems consolidation. Local consolidation is the result of fast learning and is a manifestation of the strengthening of communication between neurons in a particular area of the brain like the hippocampus and the neo-cortex. This mechanism is vital in initial memory, or newly acquired memory, encoding and it underlies the temporary memory, or short-term memory, storage. From systems consolidat...

 Memory, which is an aspect of human cognition, is what allows us to retrieve specific events/occurrences/experiences, from the past. Nevertheless, have you ever realized how your brain stores all these succeeding information? Let's go deeper and understand how hippocampus helps in organizing memories and all the ways in which memories can be organized. The hippocampus is the crucial brain structure that allows us to make and remember memories. It facilitates this act of the brain because it makes us remember information by conscious recall of the particular and specific details about past experiences. Consider, for example, the last party you had for your birthday or some important vacation you have just come back from. In these moments your hippocampus is responsible for remembering these things. Source:  https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-the-hippocampus-2795231 One interesting memory organization issue is that, between retrieval of recollection and familiarity, recol...

Across the urban settings the monkeys have amazed scientists and the town people too with the outstanding adaptive strategies they have formed, especially in tool usages. Unlike their distant cousins, the urban monkeys have managed to develop talents, such as picking up coconuts, licking the honey from bottles, and peeling peanuts. However, these are not mimicking abilities, but they signify the skill of a monkey in learning and modifying the environment. The novel object recognition concept could act as a trigger for additional exploration or learning. For example, the monkey shows interest in a new object like a coconut or a honey bottle for the first time. Leading to greet something new with great curiosity and a desire to explore. Source:https://www.vecteezy.com/vector-art/32921470-cute-monkey-sitting-with-a-bowl-of-honey-vector-illustration The growth of that kind of tool-utilization in urban monkeys reflects their cognitive flexibility as well as problem-solving capacity. For exa...