ELM 21: Neurotechniques

Question 1

What is cranial trepanation?

Answer 1

Boring holes in the skull

Question 2

What was experimental ablation?

Answer 2

Lesioning and destroying a specific part of brain to study its function

Question 3

What is an example of a lesion study?

Answer 3

Fish with ablated telencephalon didn’t swim with the rest and stood alone in corner

Question 4

What is a stereotaxic atlas?

Answer 4

Used to produce brain lesions

Question 5

What is a sham lesion?

Answer 5

Placebo procedure that duplicates all the steps of making a lesion but doesn’t actually cause the damage

Question 6

What is meant by histological methods?

Answer 6

Group of procedures that aim to observe the location of the lesion

Question 7

Who was Phineas Gage?

Answer 7

Construction foreman in US who suffered brain injury and had a personality change

Question 8

What did Wilder Penfield do?

Answer 8

Used electrical brain stimulation on awake patients for epilepsy treatments
Recorded reaction stimulating certain areas
Used information to make functional maps of cortex

Question 9

What is DBS?

Answer 9

Deep brain stimulation
Put electrodes in brain areas and controlled by pacemaker in upper chest
Electrodes make impulses that regulate abnormal impulses or affect certain cells and chemicals

Question 10

What disorders is DBS approved to treat?

Answer 10

Dystonia
Essential tremor
PD
OCD
Epilepsy

Question 11

What is a CT scan?

Answer 11

Computerised tomography
Series of X ray images from different angles to make cross sectional images

Question 12

What is a CT scan used for?

Answer 12

Examine people with internal injuries
Locate tumour
Guide procedures
Detect and monitor diseases

Question 13

What is a PET scan?

Answer 13

Positron emission tomography
Radioactive drug shows brain activity
Evaluate tumours and brain disorders

Question 14

What is an MRI?

Answer 14

Magnetic resonance imaging
Uses magnetic field and radio waves
Imaging test of brain and spinal cord

Question 15

What is an fMRI?

Answer 15

Measures metabolic changes in brain
Examines brain anatomy in potential brain surgery patients
Assess damage from head injury or disorders

Question 16

What is gene therapy?

Answer 16

Altering genes inside body’s cells to treat or stop disease instead of drugs or surgery

Question 17

What are the three different approaches of gene therapy?

Answer 17

Replacing a mutated gene
Knocking out a mutated gene
Introducing a new gene

Question 18

What are the two ways gene therapy is achieved?

Answer 18

Ex vivo gene transfer
In vivo injection of viral vectors

Question 19

What are some commonly used viral vectors?

Answer 19

Retroviral and lentiviral
Adenovirus and adenoassociated virus
Herpes simplex virus

Question 20

What are the steps of gene therapy?

Answer 20

1. New gene inserted into vector
2. Vector enters target cells
3. New gene delivered into nucleus

Question 21

What are stem cells?

Answer 21

Provide new cells for body as it grows and replace specialised cells that are damaged or lost

Question 22

What are some unique properties of stem cells

Answer 22

Self renewal
Change into other cell types

Question 23

What are the three main types of stem cell?

Answer 23

Embryonic stem cell
Adult stem cell
Induced pluripotent stem cells

Question 24

What are neural stem cells?

Answer 24

Self renewing population that generates the neurons and glia of developing brain

Question 25

What is the process of neural stem cell therapy?

Answer 25

1. Mice with hyposmia
2. Stem cells delivered intranasally engraft to produce olfactory neurons
3. New neurons project to brain olfactory bulb
4. Sense of smell recovered