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Comparative Anatomy And Physiology Of Animals > Brain > Flashcards

Brain Flashcards

1
Q

Brainstem and cerebellum

A

Little difference between fish, reptiles, birds and mammals

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2
Q

Midbrain and limbic system

A

Better developed in mammals and birds

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3
Q

Cortex and neo-cortex

A

Better developed in primates especially humans

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4
Q

Anatomy of brain stem

A

Lower brain or Neo- or Nigro-striatal
Bulge at top of spine
Connections to sensory and motor neurones
Autonomic nervous pathways such as those controlling heart and respiratory rate
Includes cerebellum which is responsible for motor co-ordination.

Some differentiation into particular pathways.
Light sensitive sensory neurones are associated with cerebellum which may help with co-ordinated movement

Mechanical and Unconscious

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5
Q

Limbic system

A

Mid-Brain or Mesolimbic System
Includes Thalamus that allows sensory information (e.g. sight, smell and hearing) to be used together
Amygdala which is involved in some emotional responses (e.g. fear) and olfactory memory
Hippocampus which is involved in relational or spatial memory
Hypothalamus which is involved in hormonal responses.

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6
Q

Thalamus

A

Allows sensory information to be used together

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7
Q

Amygdala

A

Involved in some emotional responses and olfactory memory

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8
Q

Hippocampus

A

Involved in relational and spatial memory

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9
Q

Hypothalamus

A

Involved in hormonal responses

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10
Q

Cortex and neo-cortex

A

Upper Brain or Mesocorticol
Thin matrix of sensory cells became heavily folded to allow many neural connections to be made with little increase in volume.
Cortex is the skin of this body.
Involved in detection and interpretation of sensory information
Involved in associations between stimuli and in long-term memory.
Responsible for conscious thought, conscious memory, thinking, planning and communicating.

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11
Q

Divisions of cortex

A

Parietal lobe
Occipital lobe
Temporal lobe
Neo-cortex involving frontal and pre-frontal lobe

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12
Q

Parietal lobe

A

Touch and motor cortex

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13
Q

Occipital lobe

A

Vision

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14
Q

Temporal lobe

A

Sound and language

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15
Q

Frontal and pre-frontal lobe

A

Speech, thought and decision making

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16
Q

Short term memory

A

Also called working memory
Lasts short time and information is rapidly removed/replaced
Used in coordination of ongoing behaviour

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17
Q

Long term memory

A

More permanent reference store
Consolidation of short term memories to long term memory involves repeated exposure and/or rehearsal

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18
Q

Retrograde amnesia

A

Cannot remember events from before brain damage
Effected long-term memory

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19
Q

Anterograde amnesia

A

Cannot remember events after brain damage
Effected working memory or process of consolidation

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20
Q

Implicit memory

A

Includes perceptual, motor and stimulus response learning
May involve sensory or associative cortex
Procedural - no understanding of relationship

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21
Q

Explicit memory

A

Includes: relational , spatial, episodic, semantic and emotional
Involved frontal cortex and limbic system
Declarative representation of information

22
Q

explicit memory tasks

A

Free recall tasks - involve frontal cortex and hippocampus
Eg name your favourite colour

23
Q

Implicit memory task

A

Completion task - involve visual cortex
Eg what colour is that

24
Q

How to study the brain

A

Human psychiatry
Animal models
Electro-stimulation and detection
Scans

25
Q

Human psychiatry

A

Mental illness, brain damage and surgical intervention.
e.g. Korsakoff’s syndrome
Apparent inability to form new memories
Related to malnutrition and alcohol abuse
Caused by low levels of thiamine (Vit B1).

26
Q

Animal models

A

Lesions, electro-stimulation and drug intervention

27
Q

Electro-stimulation and detection

A

Long term potentiation in hippocampus

28
Q

Scanning techniques

A

Computerized Axial Tomography (CAT)
X-ray for looking at soft tissue anatomical features
Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)
Orientation of unpaired hydrogen in magnetic field
Positron emission Tomography (PET)
Centres of activity located by radio-active labelling
Work on the living brain.
CAT and MRI show structural image whilst PET is a functional imaging technique

29
Q

CAT vs MRI vs PET

A

CAT and MRI show structural image
PET is a functional image

30
Q

Evidence from psychiatry for functioning of memory.

A

H.M. and Anterograde Amnesia
H.M suffered severe epilepsy which was treated by bilateral removal of temporal lobe
Produced similar symptoms to Korsakoff’s syndrome
I.e. Inability to form new memories
E.g. Location of new home, Identify new people

31
Q
A
32
Q

What forms the limbic system

A

Cingulate gyrus
Pineal gland
Fornix
Mammillary body
Hippocampus
Amygdala
Hypothalamus
Pituitary gland
Thalamus

33
Q

Loss of memory

A

No impairment of immediate memory (E.g. can perform 7 number task)
Little retrograde amnesia
Therefore problem appears to be one of consolidation.
Can learn simple perceptual task (e.g. Priming), simple stimulus response tasks, and simple motor tasks.
But can not remember process of learning.
Therefore no problem with procedural learning, but there is a problem with relational learning.
HM performs as well as normal people on implicit, word completion tasks, but less well on explicit, free recall tasks.

34
Q

Hippocampal lesions and memory loss

A

These appear to be necessary for relational memory and the consolidation of short-term memories.

35
Q

Spatial memory and food caching

A

Store food in many locations
May locate caches by: cues (e.g. smell or local disturbance), simple rules (e.g. favoured locations) or good spatial memory.

36
Q

Episodic memory

A

Time constrained

37
Q

Activity of hippocampal region during learning tasks

A

Hippocampus found to be active during free recall tasks (PET scans)
Specific neurones fire during association of events
Appears to be particularly important in placing events in context.
I.e. Single stimuli can be associated via stimulus response learning
Complex rules e.g. Respond to either of two cues, but do not respond when both are present requires more complex circuitry.

38
Q

Animals modes of memory

A

Difficult to study declarative learning in animals as they do not declare what they have learnt, so we tend to use models based on relational or spatial learning
Eg radial mazes or Morris

39
Q

Remembrance of things past

A

term memories or simple rules
E.g. Rats can remember which arms are baited
But does impair use of working memory
E.g. Rats can not remember which arms they have visited.
And find it harder to locate platform if released from different sites in milky maze.

40
Q

Synaptic plasticity

A

Based on connections that are already in place
Changes in sensitivity due to simultaneous activity of neurones.
Neural explanation of Hebb rule
Seen in Hebb synapse.

41
Q

Connectionist

A

Based on formation of new connections
Potential to learn dependant on complexity of neural network.

42
Q

2 theories for changes in association/memory

A
43
Q

Classical conditioning (Pavlovian)

A

Step 1: Animal performs natural (unconditioned) response to stimulus e.g. Salivate or approach food dish
Step 2: New, unconditioned signal reliably precedes reward.e.g. Buzzer/light
Step 3: With repeated pairing, animal performs response (conditioned) to artificial, conditioned stimulus. Eg. Dog salivates in response to buzzer, even without feed reward.

44
Q

Neural basis of memory and long-term potentiation

A

Memories are groups of neurones which fire together in the same order each time they are activated.
Links between individual neurones are formed by a process called long-term potentiation. (LTP)
First described by Bliss and Lomo (1973) in hippocampus

45
Q

Field excitatory post-synaptic potential

A

Increased sensitivity (greater likelihood of firing)
Persistence: Increased sensitivity for hours or days.
Synapse Specificity: Not all synapses on neurone are effected
Associativity (Hebb Rule): Association between weakly firing and strongly firing synapses leads to potentiation of the weak synapses

46
Q

Investigating long term potentiation - persistence

A
  1. Single stimulation leads to weak response
  2. Repeated stimulation leads to enhanced response (e.g. 100 signals in few seconds)
  3. If LTP has occurred then single stimulation will now lead to enhanced firing.
47
Q

Association and specificity

A
  1. Locate strong synapse.
  2. Stimulate afferent neurone and record firing (EPSP) in strongly associated neurone.
  3. Pair strong (CS) stimulation with stimulation from weakly (US) associated neurone
  4. Leads to strong association between newly conditioned stimuli and recorded neurone.
48
Q

Molecular mechanism of long term potentiation

A

Persistence, sensitivity and association can be explained by priming.
This appears to occur through depolarisation of the post-synaptic membrane.
This is mediated by the glutamate sensitive N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor (NMDA).
NMDA receptors act as calcium channels.

Glutamate (an excitatory neurotransmitter) activates NMDA.
But they are usually blocked by magnesium ions
If the post-synaptic membrane is depolarised magnesium ions are ejected so the calcium channels are freed.
Therefore activity of NMDA depends on both activation of synapse (glutamate as neurotransmitter) and post-synaptic membrane depolarisation (caused by activity in other synapses).

49
Q

Depolarisation and priming

A
  1. Activity of strong synapse depolarises dendrite membranes
    This primes NMDA receptors on dendrite spines (see above)
  2. Activity of weak synapse releases glutamate
    This opens (primed) NMDA receptors
  3. Opening of calcium channels
    Leads to entry of calcium ions and strengthens weak synapses.
50
Q

Long term potentiation in rest of brain

A

Other LTP events appear to not depend on NMDA receptors
E.g. CA3 area of hippocampus

Other Sites of LTP
Cortex (including pre-frontal, motor and visual areas)
Limbic system: Thalamus and Amygdala
These may or may not involve NMDA

51
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52
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Comparative Anatomy And Physiology Of Animals (13 decks)

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