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NEURO > Neurosystems > Flashcards

Neurosystems Flashcards

1
Q

What response does each system have? (to threat)

  • Frontal cortex
  • Hippocampus
  • Sensory cortex
  • Thalamus
  • Midbrain & hypothalamus
  • Hind brain
  • Spinal cord
A

-Frontal cortex = response suppresion

a-Hippocampus
b-Sensory cortex
c-Thalamus
All three are processed by the AMYGDALA = conditioned emotional responses

-Midbrain & hypothalamus = species-specific reponses freeze/flight/fight

  • Hind brain = ‘startle response’
  • Spinal cord = reflexive withdrawal

ALL RESULT IN MOTOR, AUTONOMIC AND ENDOCRINE OUTPUT

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2
Q

Name the three sensorimotor structures

A

-cerebral cortex
-midbrain
-hindbrain
(these areas all have sensory areas that project to motor areas and produce movement)

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3
Q

What are cerebellum re-entrant loops?

A
  • General processing
  • All sensorimotor, cognitive and motivational/affective structures connect to the cerebellum via re-entrant loops
  • Structure of origin to pons cerebellum to (thalamus) back to structure of origin
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4
Q

Basal Ganglia - what are the main inputs and outputs

A

Input functions = cognitive, affective, sensorimotor

External inputs = cerebral cortex, limbic system, brain stem via thalamus

-The selection problem - lots of competing functional systems, eg feeding vs drinking vs possible threat and escape (selection occurs via loops through the basal ganglia)

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5
Q

Name some disorders of the basal ganglia

A
  • Parkinson’s disease (degeneration of ascending dopaminergic pathways, LDOPA treatment)
  • Schizophrenia (treatment by dopamine antagonists (DA antagonists) that block dopamine receptors)
  • ADD
  • OCD
  • Drug addition (most drugs indirectly/directly increase dopamine transmission)
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6
Q

Name three generic processing units in the brain

A
  • Cerebellum (skill)
  • Basal ganglia (selection)
  • Hippocampus (episodic memory- memory of autobiographical events, time and place)
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7
Q

What is the generic function of the hippocampus?

A
  • Part of limbic system
  • Essential for construction of mental images
  • Vital in short term memory
  • Spatial memory and navigation
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8
Q

What are class A experiments?

A
  • Some behavioural, physiological or pharmacological variable is manipulated
  • the consequent effect on the brain/structure/activity is measured
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9
Q

What can be manipulated in a class A experiment?

A

-Pharmacology, physiology, behaviour

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10
Q

What neural structural changes have been observed when the brain is exposed to behavioural/physiological manipulation eg an enriched environment / schizophrenia / learning

A

-Changes to dendritic structure of cortical cells and orientation of processes in cells of hippocampus

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11
Q

What stains can be used to see the basic neural structure

A
  • Weil

- Nissl

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12
Q

What is anterograde transport?

A

Neuronal cell bodies to axon terminals

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13
Q

What is retrograde transport

A

transmission from axon terminals to neuronal cell bodies

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14
Q

What problems are there is bidirectional tracers?

A
  • The dye can go anterograde and then retrograde along branched collateral pathways
  • This can lead to incorrect conclusions
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15
Q

What is in the limbic system?

A

-Amygdala
-Hippocampus
-Entorhinal cortex (in the medial temporal lobe)
acts as an interface between the hippocampus and neocortex
Important in explicit memory (facts and verbal knowledge)
And spatial memory

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16
Q

How can effects on metabolic activity be measured?

A
  • Increases in neuronal firing increases demand for nutrients, especially glucose.
  • This increased demand can be detected using the radioactive 2-deoxy glucose technique.
17
Q

How can local haemodynamic changes be measured?

A

-More neural activity

=more blood

18
Q

How can neural activation affect genes?

A

Neural activation can induce expression of immediate early genes

Can be detected by in situ hybridisation or immunohistochemistry
– in this example the Fos-protine

19
Q

How can neural activity affect neurotransmitters?

A

Increases in neural activity – increases in release of neuro-transmitters and their breakdown products.

Detectable in:
Cerebrospinal fluid (lumbar puncture)

Local extracellular space
Microdialysis : Chemicals diffuse across dialysis membrane – measured by biochemical assay
Electrochemistry: Amperometry or Fast scan cyclic voltammetry - measures change in electrical potential when specific neurochemicals are oxidised.

20
Q

How can we measure changes in electrical activity?

A

EEG gives indication of regional brain activity underlying electrodes – good temporal resolution, poor spatial resolution – good for detecting signs of epilepsy

Local field potentials –
deep brain EEG electrodes

Single unit electrophysiology-
Single unit recordings give good temporal resolution (e.g. response latency/duration but poor spatial resolution (recording is from only one cell) – problems when trying to assess population coding of brain function

Multichannel – spike sorting

21
Q

What are class B experiments?

A

Some aspect of brain structure (lesion) or activity (stimulation/inhibition) which is manipulated and the consequent effects on behaviour/physiology /endocrinology which is determined.

22
Q

How can brain activity be suppressed? (Lesions/inactivation)

A

mechanical (e.g. lobotomy/stroke/tumour/trauma)

aspiration (suction; mainly for surface structures).

electrolytic: local damage to deep structure via implanted electrode.

excitotoxic - chemicals like kainic acid or ibotenic acid damage cells only when injected into local regions of brain

knife cut - wire knife cuts used to make fine transections of major fibre bundles.

chemospecific - certain chemicals have neurotoxic properties for specific cell groups : e.g. 6OHDA only kills cells which use the transmitters dopamine or noradrenaline…MDMA (ecstasy) neurotoxic to serotonergic neurones.

pharmacological receptor blockers: drugs which block neurotransmission in virtually all known neurotransmission systems are now available. e.g. the anti psychotic phenothiazines block dopamine receptors.

Optogentic suppression of neural activity - cell-specific photic silencing of neurones

23
Q

How can the brain be stimulated?

A

ECT: stimulating electrodes are placed on the outside of the skull….effective treatment for psychotic depression

Electrical stimulation : via implanted electrode – deep brain stimulation for Parkinson’s disease

Chemical stimulation: systemic injections (subcutaneous, intraperitoneal, intravenous - injections into cerebral ventricles

Local chemical injections - via cannulae into local regions of brain.

Microiontophoresis - application of a weak positive or negative current to a pipette (needle) containing a solution of oppositely charged particles repels (drives out) the charged ions into the brain – used in conjunction with single unit electrophysiology.

Optogentic stimulation - cell-specific photic stimulation of neurones

24
Q

Critically evaluate findings in class A experiments?

A

Are there adequate controls to ensure the observed changes in brain activity/structure are produced only by the claimed behavioural/ physiological/pharmacological manipulations?
Anatomical specificity - Are measured changes in brain structure/activity specific to the claimed regions of the brain ?

25
Q

Critically evaluate findings in class B experiments?

A

Are the effects of brain manipulation specific to the claimed physiological /endocrinological / behavioual changes ?….e.g. akinetic effects of lateral hypothalamic lesions originally misinterpreted as aphagia (unwillingness to eat)

Anatomical specificity - Is the used brain manipulation specific to the intended neural structures - fibres of passage ?…. or specific to the claimed cell-type?

Pharmacological specificity - Does the used drug have effects which are specific to the intended receptor system ?
Where is the drug acting to produce observed effects ? …..drug side effects

26
Q

How can opiates affect the brain and nervous system?

A
  • -Opiates can block pain messages transmitted by the spinal cord from the body
  • Opiates can change the limbic system which controls emotions to increase feelings of pleasure
  • opiates change the brain stem, an area that controls automatic body functions and depress breathing

NEURO (19 decks)

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