Chapter Five Flashcards
Are frontal lobes responsible for memory?
Rat stays put because loss of frontal lobes takes away ability of movement
Experimental Ablation
AKA lesion
take part of brain out; was that area responsible, or was it the pathway that ran through it?
Do simple behaviors use one brain area?
No-multiple. each of which are connected
Suction
using a tube, suction out parts of the brain; used on cortex
Radio Frequency
thin wire inserted deep into brain, heated wire burns away brain tissue-uses frequency
Excitotoxic
excite brain with toxin; amino acids put into certain brain area-stimulates neurons to death
will not kill axons that run through the region
Sham lesion controls
groups needed to control for surgical technique
treated identically, except for actual lesion
-anesthesia, opening of skull, electrode, etc. just not the actual lesion
How do scientists know where to perform a lesion?
a road map called a brain atlas shows the way
all locations are relative to bregma
bregma
the junction of sutures in the skull
Stereotaxic Apparatus
used to precisely mark the location of a lesion, electrode, or other device in the brain
What happens after the lesion?
after the lesion/experiment, one must make sure that the lesion was in the right “spot”
the brain is removed and the lesion site is examined
Fixative
formalin; prepares brain for splicing
Microtome
makes razor thin slices up to 1/1000th of a millimeter
Stained
slices are stained and put on microscope slides
cresyl violet and methylene blue are the stains used
Tracing efferents
where the pathways GO
finding the pathway that leads away from a certain region
Anterograde labeling method
efferent; chemical PHA-L taken up by dendrites in one region and carried through the axon to a different region
Tracing afferent
where pathways COME FROM
which structures send pathways to a region of interest?
Retrograde labeling method
afferent; Flurogold is taken up by terminal buttons and is carried back to the soma of those cells
CT scan
x-ray technology
MRI scan
uses magnetic forces/fields; more detailed than CT scan
PET scan
allows for study of brain activity; basically measures blood flow
fMRI
f=functional; like PET scan, these show activity of brain region
autoradiography
2-GD injected into brain which is taken up
Electroencephalogram
EEG; measurement of electrical activity of the brain
microelectrodes
can gather information from a single neuron
“grandmother cells”
were discovered by micro electrodes; only fire when they see a stimulus of a face
How are electrodes held in place?
by dental plastic and plugged into a recording device
Microdialysis
small cannula draws fluid from the brain which can be analyzed for transmitter levels
Monozygotic
(MZ) identical
Dizygotic
(DZ) fraternal
Concordant trait
both individuals possess
Discordant trait
only possessed by one of the pair
Targeted mutations
intentional altering of a genetic code
“knockout” mice
provide models of Alzheimers Disease and other disorders
