Chapter 5: Methods and Strategies of Research Flashcards
An important research method used to investigate brain functions involves destroying part of the brain and evaluating an animal’s subsequent behavior.
Experimental ablation.
A wound or injury.
Lesion
What a researcher who destroys part of the brain usually refers to the damage as.
Brain lesion
Experiments in which part of the brain is damaged and the individual’s behavior is subsequently observed.
Lesion studies
An alternating current of a very high frequency.
Radio frequency (RF) current
Excitatory amino acid which kills neurons by stimulating them to death.
Kainic acid
Lesions produced in a way of employing an excitatory amino acid.
Excitotoxic lesions
A small metal tube where an excitatory amino acid is injected through.
Cannula
A toxic protein conjugated with antibodies that will bind with particular proteins found only on certain types of neurons in the brain.
Saporin
Produced by including an additional group of animals in a lesion study.
Sham lesions
Blocks action potentials in axons entering or
leaving that region, thus effectively producing a temporary lesion.
Reversible brain lesion
A local anesthetic that blocks action potentials in axons entering or leaving a region; drug that stimulates GABA receptors.
Muscimol
Allows researchers to get an electrode or cannula to a precise location in the depths of an animal’s brain.
Stereotaxic surgery
Refers to the ability to locate objects in space.
Stereotaxis
Contains a holder that keeps the animal’s head in a standard position and an arm that moves an electrode or a cannula through measured distances in all three axes of space.
Stereotaxic apparatus
A book, website, or software that contains images that correspond to frontal sections of the brain taken at various distances rostral and caudal to bregma.
Stereotaxic atlas
Formed by several bones that grow together in the skull.
Sutures (Seams)
A soft spot at the junction of the coronal and sagittal sutures on the heads of babies.
Fontanelle
The junction once the gap on the heads of babies closes.
Bregma
Used to treat chronic pain, movement disorders (including Parkinson’s disease), epilepsy, depression, and obsessive-compulsive disorder; utilizes a stereotaxic apparatus to implant a permanent electrode into the brain of patients.
Deep brain stimulation
Procedures where histologists (specialists in these techniques) fix, slice, stain, and examine the brain.
Histological methods
Where the neural tissue is placed to be preserved from autolytic enzymes and to prevent its decomposition by bacteria or molds.
Fixative
Most commonly used fixative; aqueous solution of formaldehyde, a gas; links protein to strengthen the very soft and fragile brain tissue, and kills any microorganisms that might destroy it.
Formalin
Entails removal of the blood and its replacement with another fluid.
Perfusion
Contains three parts: a knife, a platform on
which to mount the tissue, and a mechanism that advances the knife (or the platform) the correct amount after each slice so that another section can be cut.
Microtome
Similar to a microtome; however, the entire cutting process occurs within a freezer, allowing sections to be cut at very cold temperatures.
Cryostat
A transparent liquid that covers the stained sections.
Mounting medium
2 examples of dyes that stain the cell bodies of brain tissue.
Methylene blue
Cresyl violet
One of the simplest stains researchers use for verifying the location of a brain lesion.
Cell-body stain
The material that takes up the dye within the cell; consists of RNA, DNA, and associated proteins located in the nucleus and scattered, in the form of granules, in the cytoplasm.
Nissl substance
Used to examine stained tissue; limited in its ability to reveal extremely small details.
Light microscope
Used by investigators to see very small anatomical structures as synaptic vesicles and details of cell organelles.
Transmission electron microscope