Research Challenges in Neuroscience Flashcards
What are two major challenges in neuroscience research?
The brain’s complexity and inaccessibility.
What are two common goals in neuroscience research methods?
Mapping molecular components of brain cells and tracking neural activity during behaviors.
How do research methods vary in invasiveness?
Cellular-level studies often require postmortem tissue or biopsies.
Non-invasive imaging methods track large-scale brain activity.
What is histology?
The study of body tissue composition, used to visualize neurons and glia.
What do Nissl stains visualize?
All cell bodies in a tissue section.
What are Nissl stains useful for?
Measuring the size and number of cell bodies in a specific brain region.
What do Golgi stains highlight?
Fine structural details of neurons, such as dendrites and axons.
Why are Golgi stains unique?
They stain only a small minority of neurons in a sample.
What alternative technique provides similar details to Golgi stains?
Fluorescent dye filling.
What does autoradiography involve?
Administering radioactive drugs and using photographic film to identify regions where the drug concentrates.
What does immunohistochemistry (IHC) use to study proteins?
Labeled antibodies that bind to specific proteins of interest.
How does in situ hybridization work?
: By using radioactive nucleic acids (RNA or DNA) to label neurons where a specific gene is active.
What are the three key benefits of histological techniques?
Counting and measuring neurons in specific regions.
Studying precise neuron structures.
Visualizing neurons with specific properties to explore functional relationships in the brain.
