Short term memory may be the depletion of the readily releasable pool of presynaptic neurotransmitter vesicles of a metastable long term memory trace pattern |
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Authors: | Eugen Tarnow |
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Institution: | (1) 18-11 Radburn Road, Fair Lawn, NJ 07410, USA |
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Abstract: | The Tagging/Retagging model of short term memory was introduced earlier (Tarnow in Cogn Neurodyn 2(4):347–353, 2008) to explain the linear relationship between response time and correct response probability for word recall and recognition:
At the initial stimulus presentation the words displayed tag the corresponding long term memory locations. The tagging process
is linear in time and takes about one second to reach a tagging level of 100%. After stimulus presentation the tagging level
decays logarithmically with time to 50% after 14 s and to 20% after 220 s. If a probe word is reintroduced the tagging level
has to return to 100% for the word to be properly identified, which leads to a delay in response time. This delay is proportional
to the tagging loss. The tagging level is directly related to the probability of correct word recall and recognition. Evidence
presented suggests that the tagging level is the level of depletion of the Readily Releasable Pool (RRP) of neurotransmitter
vesicles at presynaptic terminals. The evidence includes the initial linear relationship between tagging level and time as
well as the subsequent logarithmic decay of the tagging level. The activation of a short term memory may thus be the depletion
of RRP (exocytosis) and short term memory decay may be the ensuing recycling of the neurotransmitter vesicles (endocytosis).
The pattern of depleted presynaptic terminals corresponds to the long term memory trace.
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Keywords: | Short term memory Exocytosis Endocytosis Memory trace |
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