Past Exam Question Flashcards
Patients with Parkinson’s Disease are unable to produce dopamine in the substantia nigra located in the basal ganglia. These patients are often prescribed tablets containing a dopamine precursor called levodopa (L -DOPA) to treat this condition. Why are these patients not prescribed tablets containing Dopamine?
2016
What is the difference between a haemorrhagic stroke and an ischemic stroke? Why would you only use Tissue Plasminogen Activator (TPA) to treat one of these conditions?
2016
Some people have jobs that require them to stay awake at night (e.g. shift workers). How does the brain adapt so that these people are able to stay awake at night? And why is it difficult for humans to adapt to being awake at
night and asleep in the day?
2016
Describe the effects of bilateral damage to the hippocampus.
2016
Explain how an action potential travels down an axon.
2016
Our senses convert a physical property of the external world into neural activity. Explain this process for one of the following senses: ONLY ANSWER ONE OPTION
a. Vision (seeing)
b. Audition (hearing)
c. Gustation (taste)
d. Olfaction (smell)
e. Somatosensation (touch)
2016
Choose one type of legal or illegal drug (e.g. a pharmaceutical that you might be prescribed, or a substance that someone might purchase illegally). Explain
how it influences the brain and the effect that this has on behaviour.
2016
What effect does damage to the prefrontal cortex have on behaviour?
2016
You meet a patient with damage to their frontal lobe. How might their behaviour be different to a healthy person?
2015
What is the role of the basal ganglia in movement? Provide evidence to support your answer.
2015
Explain how drugs (e.g. cocaine, amphetamine, cannabis) affect the brain.
2015
Answer either (a) or (b):
a) Describe what happens to the brain during an ischemic stroke
OR
b) What is plasticity in the brain?
2015
What is myelination and how does it influence the propagation of action potentials in an axon?
2015
Either:
a) Describe how sex hormones influence development.
OR
b) Explain how the brain triggers the release of hormones and how hormones influence behaviour.
2015
Is there a difference between “liking” and “wanting” in the brain?
2015
Describe a pharmaceutical treatment for major depression.
2015
What are the behavioural consequences of damage to the parietal lobe of the brain?
2014
What is the relationship between diet and neurotransmitters in the brain?
2014
Either describe: a) The human sense of gustation. OR b) The human sense of olfaction. OR c) The difference between the dorsal and ventral visual pathways in the cortex.
2014
Either:
a) Describe Alzheimer’s Disease.
OR
b) Explain the difference between retrograde amnesia and anterograde amnesia. Describe how the behaviour of a patient with each condition would differ.
2014
Describe what happens to the brain during an ischemic stroke.
2014
What are the consequences of sleep deprivation?
2014
What is the role of the hippocampus in memory? Provide evidence to support your answer.
2013
Describe the difference between the dorsal and ventral visual pathways; provide neuropsychological evidence to support these claims.
2013
How do humans use their senses to detect danger in their environment?
2013
How does the pituitary gland influence human behaviour? Provide at least one example.
2013
What is the brain’s reward system? Give an example of how a behaviour might activate this system
2013
Describe some of the mechanisms by which psychological stressors could affect physiological health.
2013
Describe the characteristics AND physiological changes that are implicated in EACH of the following dementias: A. Parkinson’s disease B. Korsakoff’s syndrome C. Alzheimer’s disease D. Huntington’s chorea
2013
What is the relationship between melatonin and sleep?
2013
Explain why Prozac (an SSRI) might act as antidepressant.
2013
