Skip to ContentGo to accessibility pageKeyboard shortcuts menu
OpenStax Logo

The EEG signature of absence epilepsy is the generalized 3 Hz spike-wave discharge. The chart is black with white waveforms.
Figure 18.1 Interictal epileptiform discharges (IED) show up via EEG as a generalized 3 Hz signal. Image credit: Bromfield EB, Cavazos JE, Sirven JI, editors., CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Meet the Author

Amy L. Griffin, Ph.D.

In Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, the protagonist, Ebenezer Scrooge, is a penny-pinching businessman who changes his ways after being visited by ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Yet to Come. However, in our real life, it is possible to relive the past and imagine the future without the help of a ghostly guide. Even as you sit and read this chapter, you are able to pause and remember last Thanksgiving or your first kiss. In other words, you perform mental time travel. You can even imagine future scenarios—graduation day or a party that you are looking forward to attending in the near future. Indeed, the remarkable ability to learn and remember is a core feature of our human experience. In this chapter, we will explore what is known about how the nervous system accomplishes this extraordinary task. We will learn about the different types of memory that are subserved by different brain memory systems and about what goes wrong in the brain when memory fails. As part of this process, we will also learn about learning. Learning refers to the acquisition of new information or skills while memory is the process by which that information is stored and later retrieved. These are separate processes, each with their own neural substrates that we will examine in the following sections.

Citation/Attribution

This book may not be used in the training of large language models or otherwise be ingested into large language models or generative AI offerings without OpenStax's permission.

Want to cite, share, or modify this book? This book uses the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License and you must attribute OpenStax.

Attribution information
  • If you are redistributing all or part of this book in a print format, then you must include on every physical page the following attribution:
    Access for free at https://openstax.org/books/introduction-behavioral-neuroscience/pages/1-introduction
  • If you are redistributing all or part of this book in a digital format, then you must include on every digital page view the following attribution:
    Access for free at https://openstax.org/books/introduction-behavioral-neuroscience/pages/1-introduction
Citation information

© Nov 20, 2024 OpenStax. Textbook content produced by OpenStax is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License . The OpenStax name, OpenStax logo, OpenStax book covers, OpenStax CNX name, and OpenStax CNX logo are not subject to the Creative Commons license and may not be reproduced without the prior and express written consent of Rice University.