[Memory and learning: 'experience' and 'skill' of the brain]. / La memoria y el aprendizaje: 'experiencia' y 'habilidad' en el cerebro.

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE: To describe the current typology and different processes involved in memory and learning, as well as adequate tests in the diagnosis of the mnesic disorders. DEVELOPMENT We reviewed the most recent studies about functional and lesional neuroanatomy of memory and learning and their neurophysiological bases (cellular and biochemical), with special emphasis in studies published in the three last years. We structured a typological classification, we expose the processes involved in short-term and long-term memory, we detailed the mnesic processes of declarative and implicit type, and we expose profiles of amnesias frequent in the clinical neurology and neuropsychology. CONCLUSIONS: Memory is not a diffuse and unitary process in our brain, neither amnesia is an absolute loss of memory. The multidimensional combination of two temporary memories (short- and long-term) and three mnesic processes ('working memory', explicit and implicit memory-learning) increases our capacity to memorize and learn, and it allows us to store the information in distinctive periods, with different mechanisms and covering different necessities. Patients with amnesia exhibit distinctive profiles of mnesic processes affected.