Neurobiology 2, Brain Function

Question 1

What did Franz Joseph Gall suggest about the brain?

Answer 1

That the brain was divided into 27 separate “organs,” led to phrenology

Question 2

Medulla and pons

Answer 2

control physical functions

Question 3

Cerebellum

Answer 3

coordinates motor commands to muscles

Question 4

Diencephalon

Answer 4

core of the “forebrain” and includes the thalamus, hippocampus, hypothalamus, and posterior pituitary

Question 5

Telencephalon (cerebrum)

Answer 5

consists of two cerebral hemispheres (left and right)
-In humans, it is the largest part of the brain and plays major roles in sensory perception, learning, memory, and conscious behavior

Question 6

Cerebral cortex

Answer 6

Higher-order information processing, diff regions of the cerebral cortex have specific functions, long-term memory
-ex: temporal lobes are involved in the recognition, identification, and naming of objects > damage to temporal lobe results in disorders in which the individual is aware of a stimulus but cannot identify it

Question 7

Motor cortex

Answer 7

axons project to muscles in specific parts of the body, areas w/ fine motor control have greatest representation

Question 8

Somatosensory cortex

Answer 8

receives touch and pressure info, whole body surface can be mapped onto somatosensory cortex

Question 9

An example of neural plasticity

Answer 9

each finger has a specific location on the sensory and motor regions of the cortex; in monkeys, one middle finger was amputated and over time, the area of the cortex that had been dedicated to the middle finger was re-assigned to other fingers

Question 10

Pathway of repeating a spoken word

Answer 10

brain activity travels from auditory cortex to Wernicke’s area to Broca’s area to motor cortex

Question 11

Pathway of repeating a written word

Answer 11

brain activity travels from visual cortex to Wernicke’s area to Broca’s to motor cortex

Question 12

What is aphasia?

Answer 12

an impairment of the ability to produce and/or comprehend language due to brain damage

Question 13

Damage to Broca’s Area

Answer 13

unable to create gramatically-complex sentences, speech is telegraphic and choppy, patients are usually aware that they cannot speak properly

Question 14

Damage to Wernicke’s Area

Answer 14

damage to posterior regions of left hemisphere, results in a more pronounced comprehension impairment, speech is normal but does not make sense (roundabout, vague, or meaningless)

Question 15

What is the corpus callosum?

Answer 15

a major neural “highway” of axons that allows neurons on the left and right sides of the cortex to communicate

Question 16

How does learning involve changes at synapses?

Answer 16

Repeated firing facilitates a synapse so that subsequent action potentials arriving at the same synapse release more NT vesicles than did the first action potential, increasing the probability that the later EPSPs will be more likely to elicit an action potential in the post-synaptic cell

Question 17

Classical conditioning

Answer 17

involves associations between parallel synaptic pathways so that when one pathway is triggered the other one is too

Question 18

Alzheimer’s Disease

Answer 18

a loss of synapses

Question 19

What do learning-associated changes at synapses involve?

Answer 19

1. changes in recruitment of receptors to postsynaptic membranes
2. phosphorylation of proteins that modulate the amt of NT release or receptors which changes their sensitivity

Question 20

What is an example of learning-associated changes at synapses?

Answer 20

Long-term potentiation at glutamatergic synapses (strengthens synaptic transmission)

Question 21

How does LTP at glutamatergic synapses function?

Answer 21

1. continued use of glutamatergic synapse
2. recruit new receptors (AMPA)
3. glutamate release activates AMPA receptors
4. this triggers depolarization
5. NMDA receptors are unblocked
6. AMPA and NMDA receptors allow Na+ and Ca2+ influx that trigger bursts of action potentials

Question 22

Hippocampus

Answer 22

short-term memory, plays a partial role in FORMING long-term memory

Question 23

Tetrodotoxin on the Nervous System

Answer 23

potent inhibitor of voltage-gated Na+ channels (action potential stop)

Question 24

Effect of novocaine and lidocaine

Answer 24

stop action potentials and act locally

Question 25

Multiple Sclerosis

Answer 25

an autoimmune disease in which the myelin sheaths are attacked by the immune system, decreasing the efficiency at which signals travel
Symptoms: numbness, poor coordination, poor vision, and paralysis

Question 26

Parkinson’s Disease

Answer 26

common neurodegenerative disease in which there is progressive degeneration of dopamine-containing neurons in a part of the brain (substantia nigra)
Symptoms: tremor, muscle rigidity and weakness, speech difficulties, dementia, and blank/mask-like facial expression

Question 27

Treatment for Parkinson’s

Answer 27

Using L-dopa, a precursor to dopamine, or dopamine agonists to boost dopamine production

Question 28

Depression

Answer 28

diminished interest or pleasure in activities, significant weight loss or gain unrelated to dieting, insomnia, hypersomia, fatigue, feelings of worthlessness or guilt, diminished ability to concentrate, recurrent thought of death

Question 29

Is serotonin involved in depression?

Answer 29

-SSRI = selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors
-they inhibit serotonin reuptake to increase the time that serotonin lingers in the synaptic cleft after release

Question 30

Schizophrenia

Answer 30

-related to dopamine and glutamate
-some drugs block a specific type of dopamine receptor
-Symptoms: hearing internal voices not heard by others; believing that other people are reading their minds, controlling their thoughts, or plotting to harm them
-Amphetamine can produce similar symptoms

Question 31

Psychoactive drugs

Answer 31

1. Cocaine
2. LSD
3. Amphetamines

Question 32

Cocaine

Answer 32

inhibits dopamine and norephinephrine transporters

Question 33

LSD

Answer 33

serotonin agonist

Question 34

Amphetamines

Answer 34

induces release of dopamine and inhibits transporter; produces symptoms very similar to those of schizophrenia

Question 35

What happens during meditation, prayer, chanting, and liturgies?

Answer 35

-increases activity in the front part of the brain and decreases activity in the area of the brain that orients our bodies in space
-decreased activity in orientation area is believed to be related to the changes in spatial recognition and the loss of self-awareness that’s associated with meditative states
-orientation area > parietal lobe