PUB - Publikationen an der Universität Bielefeld

Time and contents-dependent subdivisions of memory are described together with current assumptions on brain structures involved in encoding, consolidating. storing, and retrieving of information. Episodic memory, the knowledge system, procedural memory and priming are regarded as the four principal content-related long-term memory divisions. Tulving's SPI-model for information processing is emphasized to explain serial (S) encoding, parallel (P) storage and independent (I) retrieval. The limbic system with its two main circuits - the Papez circuit and the basolateral limbic circuit - is supposed to be necessary for encoding and consolidating memories. Storage of most memories is proposed to occur largely within major areas of the cerebral cortex, but assumed to extend beyond these. A hemisphere-specific preponderance is assumed to exist in that may that episodic-autobiographical information is related to the right cerebral cortex and information from the knowledge system to the left. For procedural memory the basal ganglia and portions of the cerebellum are implicated as well. Retrieval of episodic and knowledge information is triggered by the synchronous action of the temporo-frontal junction area. Data from brain damaged patients as well as from patients without known neuropathol ogy, but with amnesic disturbances, are used to illustrate possible mechanisms of mnestic processing failures. Particular emphasis is laid on recent cases with socalled functional amnesia. These cases may suffer from hormonal changes induced by continued and improper processed stress which may lead to a syndrome named 'mnestic block'. Possible consequences fora unitary theory of memory processing by the brain are discussed.