Midterm 1 Flashcards
A strand of DNA serves as a template (model) for the synthesis of…
RNA
Interruption of the production of RNA would directly affect…
protein synthesis
Chemically, what is the route from genes to their expression?
DNA to RNA to proteins
Males are more likely than females to exhibit color vision deficiency because of a gene that is…
recessive and sex-linked
Small, charged molecules can cross the membrane through…
protein channels
What is the correct order of transmission of information within a neuron?
Dendrite, cell body, axon
Which function is NOT performed by glia?
a) removing waste materials
b) building the myelin sheaths
C) transmitting information
d) guiding growth of axons and dendrites
The risk of having part of the brain unprotected by the blood brain barrier is that…
viruses or toxic chemicals are likely to damage it
Why do neurons rely so heavily on glucose as their source of nutrition?
other fuels do not readily cross the blood-brain barrier
When the neuronal membrane is at rest, the sodium channels…
are closed
What is one major cause for the resting potential of a neurons membrane?
the sodium-potassium pump
When a membrane is at rest, what attracts potassium ions to the inside of the cell?
an electrical gradient
Stimulus A depolarizes a neuron just barely above the threshold, stimulus B depolarizes a neuron to 10 mV beyond threshold. What can we expect to happen?
stimulus A and stimulus B will produce the same response in neurons
Suppose we applied a drug to a neuron that caused its sodium gates to suddenly open wide. What would happen?
an action potential
According to the all-or-none law…
once an axon reaches threshold, the amplitude and velocity of an action potential are nearly equal each time
Where do most action potentials begin?
at the axon hillock
What is the primary difference between temporal summation and spatial summation?
spatial summation depends on contributions from more than one sensory neuron
In the epigenetics studies on maternal behavior, researcher Meaney showed that…
stress resilience was related to maternal behavior but could not be reversed with cross-fostering the pups
What provides the building blocks for synthesizing neurotransmitters?
substances found in the diet
The main advantage of a neuron releasing more than one neurotransmitter is that…
it can send more complex messages
Neural stem cells are…
cells within the brain that have the potential to become any other cells of the nervous system, self-renewing, well accepted now but are not acknowledged before 1994
Neurotransmission is affected by…
The number of dendrites available to receive information AND The amount of neurotransmitter available to stimulate receptors on the dendrites
Transmission of information between neurons occurs in the same way as transmission along the axon which is…
chemical
Transporter proteins transport neurotransmitters…
back to the presynaptic neuron
What affect would be considered agonistic
stimulating the release of neurotransmitters
The key into a lock analogy best describes…
a drug’s affinity for a receptor
The primary difference between an EPSP and an action potential is that…
EPSP’s are subthreshold events that decay over time and space
Which neurotransmitter has been repeatedly connected with addictive drugs?
dopamine
Which division of the nervous system consists of neurons that control the heart, intestines and other organs?
autonomic
In anatomy, the opposite of medial is…
lateral
Seeing a snake come out of the drain in the bathtub might increase your heart rate, dilate your pupils, cause you to sweat, and raise the hair on your neck. These responses are due to the activity of the….
sympathetic nervous system
What, generally, is the relationship between the activity of the sympathetic and the parasympathetic nervous systems…
they usually have opposite effects on the same organ
Damage to which hindbrain structure would be most life-threatening?
medulla
The cerebellum contributes to the control of what function?
olfaction and movement
What type of neurons in the substantia nigra deteriorates in Parkinson’s disease?
dopamine
A group of forebrain structures is important for motivated and emotional behavior. What is the name given to this group of structures?
limbic system
Damage to the thalamus would most likely result in…
loss of sensory input to the cortex
An impairment of eating, drinking, temperature regulation or sexual behavior suggests possible damage to which brain structure?
hypothalamus
An individual has difficulty remembering certain things after brain damage but all memories stored before the damage are intact. the brain area most likely damaged is the…
hippocampus
A blind person who suddenly loses the ability to read Braille has probably suffered damage to what area of the cerebral cortex?
parietal lobe
The prefrontal cortex is important for…
working memory
If you were interested in determining if the volume of the hippocampus is associated with the amount of stress a person was experiencing, this method would be the best choice
CAT
Which brain imaging techniques does NOT provide a functional measure of brain activity?
MRI
A stereotaxic instrument would most likely be used for…
placing an electrode in the brain
The purpose of creating a sham lesion is to…
assess the effects of introducing an electrode
Stem cells are important for which of the following development processes?
proliferation
Best characterize how axons arrive at the correct target cells.
they follow chemical gradients from the target cell
Brain cells that are neither neurons nor glia, but are capable of dividing and then differentiating into neurons of glia, are called…
stem cells
Name functions of neutrophins?
- direct axonal growth during development
- increase axonal branching in mature neurons
- increase regrowth of axons after brain damage
