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Lab Techniques in Neuroscience > Unit 1 > Flashcards

Unit 1 Flashcards

1
Q

What does gene expression measure?

A
  • Not DNA (consistent)
  • Either protein or RNA levels
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2
Q

What method needs small amounts of mRNA to measure epxression?

A

qPCR

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3
Q

Molecular clock

A

genetic network of different clock gene proteins that general primary and secondary feedback loops inside the cell nucleus

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4
Q

Steps of the Period Molecular Clock

A
  1. CLOCK/BMAL1, when active, increases PER and CRY expression because it binds to its promoter
  2. PER and CRY proteins feedback to inhibit and stop CLOCK/BMAL1-driven expression of PER and CRY
  3. As levels of PER and CRY go down, CLOCK/BMAL1 bind to promoter and increase PER and CRY transcription again
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5
Q

How long does the period molecular clock take?

A

24 hours

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6
Q

Are we looking at circadian rhythm in the experiment?

A

No!
- If we measured at two different time points, then yes
- Because we are just looking at PER expression, it isn’t necessarily the circadian rhythm

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7
Q

Suprachiasmatic Nucleus (SCN)

A
  • In hypothalamus
  • Master pacemaker
  • Retinohypothalamic tract simulates wave of cellular activity in SCN due to light
  • This pattern is expressed to other cells in the body with clock genes
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8
Q

What do clock genes regulate?

A

Circadian rhythms (which can be a lot more than just sleep!)

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9
Q

Common causes of circadian rhythm disruption

A
  1. Behavioral (jet-lag, shift work)
  2. Social (blue-light (slow wavelength light effect)
  3. Medical (insomnia, blindness)
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10
Q

True or False: if the experimental design is flawed, the data are not valid.

A

True!

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11
Q

How to recognize pseudoscience?

A
  • Lack of credible sources
  • Illogical leaps
  • Reference to old wisdom
  • Accrediting the author with many things
  • Attempting to sell you something
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12
Q

What is the purpose of a pilot study?

A

To due a small scale, preliminary study before a larger scale study to determine overall feasibility of the larger study, design parameters, possible adverse events, and others to not waste time and money

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13
Q

Best way to pick a question

A

Start broadly, then refine and focus to a testable hypothesis

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14
Q

Falsifiability

A

Show that your hypothesis can be false

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15
Q

Operationalized hypothesis

A

Hypothesis written in terms of the operations and procedures used to test it

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16
Q

Internal validity

A

How reliable and replicable your results are and if you can determine a causal relationship between variables

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17
Q

Reliability

A

Measurements give similar results each time they are repeated under the same conditions

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18
Q

Replicable

A

Results are seen when the experiment is repeated and similar results are obtained

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19
Q

External Validity

A

How well the research can be applied/generalized to other populations and settings

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20
Q

Ecological Validity

A

How well the research mirrors conditions in the real world

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21
Q

Predictive Validity

A

How well your measures can predict important outcomes

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22
Q

True or False: you can use pipettes outside the range that is indicated on the side

A

False

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23
Q

Pipette ranges for orange pipette tips

A

0.1-2 microliters
1-10 microliters

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24
Q

Pipette ranges for yellow pipette tips

A

5-50 microliters
20-200 microliters

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25
Q

Pipette ranges for blue pipette tips

A

100-1000 microliters

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26
Q

Steps to fill pipette and dispense the liquid

A
  1. Keep pipette upright to both fill and dispense
  2. Press plunger down to the first stop before placing in liquid
  3. Place tip in a small distance below surface of liquid and slowly release plunger. Leave in long enough for liquid to enter tip, then withdraw tip
  4. Dispense solution onto tube surface or into liquid. Do not dispense into air. Dispense by pressing plunger down to the second stop. With without release the plunger.
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27
Q

General idea behind a spectrophotometer

A
  • White light splits into different wavelengths
  • Single wavelength selected and shone through solution
  • Light will be absorbed by the solution. More light is absorbed as the concentration of protein increases
  • Any light not absorbed is detected and measured
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28
Q

At what wavelength do proteins absorb the most light?

A

280nm

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29
Q

Beer Lambert Law

A

Relates the absorption of light to the properties of the material through through which the light is traveling, so assuming you have a pure solution of protein, you can use the law to determine the concentration

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30
Q

Serial dilutions

A

Mix half and half, then add some of the mix to the next tube

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31
Q

Relative concentrations

A

The amount of solution added with a relative concentration

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32
Q

How many microliters are added to spectrophotometer with the serial dilutions?

A

3

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33
Q

How to graph the spectrophotometer and relative concentrations

A

Relative on X, actual on Y; should be linear

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34
Q

Concentration of the solution _____ each time a dilution is made

A

Halves

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35
Q

Observational studies

A
  • Non-experiment
  • Neuroanatomy studies
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36
Q

Case studies

A

-Non-experiment
- Thorough analysis relating to a single object or participant, such as a person with a unique type of brain damage

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37
Q

What does an experiment involve?

A

An independent variable (manipulated by research) and a dependent variable (measured variable)

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38
Q

To see if the IV is affecting the DV, you must appropriately ______ the IV

A

control

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39
Q

Independent Samples design

A

2 separate groups of subjects and each group has a variation of the IV

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40
Q

Levels of IV

A

Different variations of the IV, for example multiple doses of the same drug, plus an appropriate control treated group

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41
Q

Confounding variables

A

Change with the independent variable and outcome, and should be avoided!

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42
Q

Controlled variables

A

Variables other than the independent variable: the only variable that should be different between the two groups is the IV

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43
Q

Not all uncontrolled variables are _____

A

confounding variables

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44
Q

Positive Control

A

Checks that the procedure is working

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45
Q

Negative Control

A

Checks that the procedure isn’t giving you false positive results

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46
Q

Purpose of negative and positive controls

A

To show that the procedure is working reliably

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47
Q

Vehicle control

A
  • Drug administration studies
  • Vehicle = solvent for a drug (not always saline!)
  • Controls for all other non-drug variables associated with drug administration
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48
Q

Sham Surgery Controls

A
  • In studies where the IV involves a surgery, a sham surgery is the appropriate control
  • All variables of the surgery are the same, expect the step that represents the IV
  • Note: some experiments involve surgery that’s the SAME in all groups, in this case, there are no sham surgery controls
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49
Q

Random assignment

A

-Addresses the problem that there may be variables that have not been thought of and explicitly controlled for
- Randomly assigning subjects across the experimental conditions (so that variables associated with subjects are equally distributed)

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50
Q

Randomization of treatment

A

Running experimental and control groups synchronously, rather than all control subjects and then all experimental subjects

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51
Q

How to best randomize

A

Random number generator or pulling numbers from a hat!

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52
Q

Within subjects design

A

Each subject undergoes all the experimental and control conditions (often used in fMRI studies)

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53
Q

Matched Sample design

A

Subjects are matches for that variable between groups, such as a baseline difference in the dependent variable

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54
Q

How to conduct a matched sample design

A
  1. Pretest to measure the variable
  2. Rank order based on the data
  3. For a 2 group experiment, form pairs starting from the top two subjects
  4. Randomize pairs to each group
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55
Q

Attrition

A

Loss of subjects before the end of the experiment

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56
Q

How could attrition be bad for an experimental design?

A

If one group experiences more attrition than another group, it might be due to a confounding variable

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57
Q

Quasi Experiment

A

An “experiment” in which the IV is a subject characteristic (something that can’t be changed between the subjects)
- An example would be transgenic mice

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58
Q

Types of Transgenic Mice

A

Knock-Out - gene inactivated so it does not produce the protein
Knock-In - gene inserted allows for expression of a new protein or over-expression of a naturally one
Control - Wild type

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59
Q

Automate

A

Using devices or machinery for things - whenever possible, automation should be used (will control for bias)

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60
Q

What should you do if you can’t automate?

A

Have more than one person observe and rate with good reliability (consistency) between observers

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61
Q

Placebo

A

Inert substance (not the vehicle) sometimes used as a control in drug administration studies in people (not often done in animal studies)

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62
Q

Why do we need placebos?

A
  • Health conditions can change over time so there can be spontaneous remission
  • Response to taking a drug could not be due to its pharmacological effects alone
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63
Q

Placebo effect

A

Can be really large (referring to response to taking a drug could not be due to its pharmacological effects!)

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64
Q

Ethical concerns of placebo effect

A

-Subjects should know there is a possibility they are not getting the drug
- You do not use placebos when there is proven treatment (like NSAIDs)

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65
Q

Single-Blind Study

A

The experimenter knows which group the subject is in, but the subject does not!

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66
Q

Double-Blind Study

A

Neither the experimenter nor the subject knows which group the subject is in (best design!!)

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67
Q

How should you analyze data?

A

BLIND

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68
Q

Special concerns in pharmacological studies

A

-Important to perform a does response curve
- Log dose often shows a linear response pattern, so doses used SHOULD have a 1, 3, 10, 30, 100 pattern

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69
Q

Order effects

A

In a within subjects design, if you always run the same experimental condition first, you might have an order effect: first experimental condition influences the response to the second condition

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70
Q

Counterbalancing

A
  • Helps prevent order effects
  • Randomize the order of conditions
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71
Q

Time-Series Design

A
  • Helps prevent order effects
  • Dependent variable is measured at different times with the control or experiment condition applied between measures
  • I.E. Control condition A, followed by Experimental condition B, followed by Control condition A
  • Helps to control for the effect of time!
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72
Q

Designs in fMRI Experiments

A
  • Blocked Design
  • Event-Related Design
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73
Q

Blocked Design

A

fMRI experiments often follow this design, where experiments conditions are alternated with a rest period in between (this rest, task, rest, task)

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74
Q

Event-related Design

A

Present test stimuli for a very short period of time, with longer time in between for control condition

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75
Q

True or False: you can conclude brain activity caused behavioral responses in fMRI studies

A

False

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76
Q

Cause and Effect

A
  • If all variables were controlled for and the IV was changed, we can assume the difference in variables is due to the IV or to chance (use inferential statistics!)
77
Q

When is “x” necessary for “y”

A

If an effect y doesn’t happen when x is removed, x is necessary for y

78
Q

When is “x” sufficient for “y”

A

If an effect y happens when x is added, with all other variables constant, x is sufficient for y

79
Q

Convergent evidence

A

General hypothesis is supported by multiple experiments using different techniques that come to the same conclusion

80
Q

Meta-analysis

A

Analysis of data from multiple studies on the same topic

81
Q

Population

A

Entire collection of cases of interest

82
Q

Sample

A

Subset of the population

83
Q

True or false: if you want to compare two groups to determine if they differ, in the language of statistics, you are asking “do these two samples come from different populations”?

A

True

84
Q

Descriptive statistics

A

Describe and visualize the sample data

85
Q

Inferential statistics

A

Determine the probability that the samples are from different populations

86
Q

True or false: Scientists often use the word “proof”

A

FALSE

87
Q

Stratified Random Sampling

A

Ensure equal representation of groups within a population

88
Q

Type I Error

A

-You reject the null and conclude the groups differ when they do not
- Alpha (0.05)

89
Q

What is a statistically significant difference

A
  • When a test statistic meets or exceeds the critical value determined by alpha (0.05)
90
Q

Type II Error

A
  • You accept the null when it is actually false
  • Beta (also shows power (1-beta))
91
Q

Power

A

1 - beta

92
Q

What kind of sample sizes diminish the chance of making a Type II error?

A

bigger

93
Q

Factorial designs

A
  • Multiple IVs
  • Simplest is 2x2
  • Each number represents an independent variable, the numerical value represents the number of levels that variable has
94
Q

How many independent variables are in a 2x2 design?

A

2

95
Q

How many levels do each of the variables have in a 2x2 design?

A

2

96
Q

How many groups are in a 2x2 design?

A

4

97
Q

Tuskegee Syphilis Study

A

Unethical research in which African Americans with syphilis were told they don’t syphilis, didn’t get consented, were not informed that the study would not benefit them, and did not know and weren’t offered penicillin

98
Q

Common Rule Policy

A

Regulates research studies with humans under many federal agencies

99
Q

Office for Human Research Protection (OHRP)

A

Under the Department of Health and Human Services

100
Q

IRBs are overseen by

A

OHRP

101
Q

IRB

A

Group of 5 members that review all research on human participants at a certain institution

102
Q

Belmont Report

A

3 major aspects of ethics
1. Respect for persons
2. Beneficence
3. Justice

103
Q

Respect for Persons

A

Informed consent

104
Q

Beneficence

A

Benefit-risk analysis, confidentiality, and protection from harm

105
Q

Justice

A

Study the population that would benefit the most

106
Q

What factors should you consider when considering animal research?

A

Type of experiment, type of animal, number of animals required

107
Q

3Rs

A

Refine
Reduce
Replace

108
Q

Name of the first edition of legal regulations of animal use in USA

A

Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals

109
Q

Animal Welfare Act

A

Covers all warm blooded animals except for birds, rats, and mice (and farm animals used in agricultural research) - under USDA

110
Q

PHS Policy on Humane Care and Use of Laboratory Animals

A

Research supported by the Public Health Service: covers ALL vertebrate animals

111
Q

PHS Policy is overseen by whom?

A

Office of Laboratory Animal Welfare (OLAW)

112
Q

IACUC

A

-IRB for animal research
- All use of vertebrate animals must be reviewed and approved before animals are used

113
Q

IACUC Protocols

A

-Rationale for using the specific animals
- Specific procedures (including housing)
- Educational benefit
- Justification of species
- Description of pain and distress experienced by animal

114
Q

Who sits on the IACUC?

A
  • Scientists
  • Non-scientists
  • Vet
  • Non-affiliate member
115
Q

Two ways data can be unethically handled

A

Fraud and Bias

116
Q

Fraud of data

A

Outright fabrication of data or unjustified conclusions, including changing or omitting data, altering equipment to achieve desired results

117
Q

Bias of data

A

Beliefs can cause data bias if there is any subjectivity in the measure
- Mathematical errors that aren’t corrected

118
Q

What is a classic example of bias in data handling?

A

Morton vs Gould (Morton thought race had an impact on skull size, Gould found that it didn’t)

119
Q

What is the bottom line of the Gould vs Morton debate?

A

Our personal beliefs can bias data collection and analysis, either consciously or unconsiously

120
Q

Steps to prevent bias

A
  1. Analyze all data blind to experimental conditions
  2. Double check all data - especially calculations
  3. Automate all procedures and data handling
121
Q

Steps to Show Research is not fraudulent

A
  1. Keep detailed notebooks with best practices (pen!)
  2. Maintain files with raw data
122
Q

What are two ways to quantify levels of mRNA

A
  • In situ hybridization (anatomically specific)
  • qPCR (sensitive and detects very low levels of mRNA)
123
Q

Cockroach “brain”

A

Consists of 2 fused ganglia

124
Q

Cockroach Ventral Nerve Cord

A
  • Arises from “brain”
  • Lies of ventral side
  • Has more ganglia (3 in thorax and 6 in abdomen)
125
Q

How many ganglia are in the thorax of a cockroach?

A

3

126
Q

How many ganglia are in the abdomen of a cockroach?

A

6

127
Q

True or false: the VNC is the spinal cord in cockroaches

A

False

128
Q

General overview of VNC dissection

A
  • Anesthetize cockroaches in ice water
  • Cut off parts that can move
  • Pin to dissection dish ventral side down
  • Remove all of abdominal exoskeleton dorsally
  • Carefully remove organs and fat using blunt dissection, working parallel to nerve cord
  • Remove as much fat as possible from nerve without breaking it
  • Use a bent seeker to clear the nerve cord from the ventral exoskeleton
  • Hold the nerve cord with forceps and cut out a 1-2 cm piece of cleared nerve cord and place in 2 ml microcentrifuge tube
129
Q

How to reduce the amount of RNA that degrades

A
  • Work as quickly as possible when you dissect the tissue
  • Always wear gloves when working with your tissue/RNA
  • Keep sample on ICE
130
Q

What breaks down RNA?

A

RNase (ribonuclease enzymes present in tissues)

131
Q

Organic Extraction of RNA Overview

A
  • Sample is homogenized in a phenol based solution, then centrifuged
  • Sample separates into 3 phases
    1. Lower organic phase
    2. Middle phase called interphase
    3. Upper aqueous phase
  • Organic and Interphase have everything, aqueous phase has RNA!
  • Aqueous phase is recovered and RNA is collected by alcohol precipitation and rehydration
132
Q

Benefits of organic RNA extraction

A
  • Rapid denaturation and stabilization of RNA
  • Good for removing gDNA
  • Scalable technique
133
Q

Drawbacks of organic RNA extraction

A
  • Use/disposal of organic reagents
  • Manually intensive processing
134
Q

RNA Isolation by Spin Column

A
  • Spin columns use membranes across the bottom of a small plastic column/basket
  • Tissue samples are homogenized in a special buffer, added to column, and centrifuged (spin column!)
  • This pulls sample through membrane and nucleic acids bind to membrane
  • To get rid of DNA specific nucleic acids, the membrane is washed and degraded with DNase and then eluted appropriately
135
Q

Benefits of Spin Column Method

A

Convenient, easy to use, good for all samples, can be automated

136
Q

Drawbacks of the Spin Column Method

A

Spin columns can easily clog, limited binding capacity, and can retain gDNA!!!!!

137
Q

What is in a lysis buffer?

A

Guanidine thicyanate and 1-Thioglycerol

138
Q

Purpose of Guanidine thicyanate

A
  • Lyses cells (breaks their membranes)
  • Disrupts nucleoprotein complexes
  • Inactivated RNases
139
Q

Purpose of 1-Thioglycerol

A

Inactivate RNases

140
Q

What do we add to the RNA tissue?

A

Lysis buffer

141
Q

What do we do after extract RNA tissue and adding it to lysis buffer?

A

Homogenize and pipette 10 times (shear)

142
Q

What happens after homogenizing and shearing of homogenate/lysate?

A

Centrifuge - pipette the solution in the middle as to not pick up fat or insoluble crud

143
Q

What is added to the homogenized and centrifuged sample?

A

Isopropanol

144
Q

General steps of the spin column (from the actual lab)

A
  1. Lyse tissue
  2. Bind to column with isopropanol
  3. Wash/Centrifuge
  4. DNase treat (15 minutes)
  5. Elute and wash RNA from column using RNase-free water
145
Q

Why do we need to make cDNA?

A

RNA can’t be amplified, so we need to make a complementary DNA copy of the RNA to quantify in a qPCR

146
Q

What is the ratio of mRNA to DNA?

A

1:1

147
Q

Best absorbance of RNA

A

260nm

148
Q

Why do we measure RNA concetration?

A

To make sure we start with the same amount of total nucleic acid so we can fairly compare the samples

149
Q

A260:A280 ratio should be

A

2

150
Q

Why should the A260:A280 ratio be 2?

A

Because the absorbance at 260 should be twice that at 280

151
Q

What type of primer did we use?

A

Oligo (dT) primer

152
Q

What does “oligo” mean?

A

Short for “oligonucleotide” - short length of DNA

153
Q

What does “dT” mean?

A

Sequence containing only thymine molecules that will bind to a sequence of adenines in the RNA sample (the poly A tail) - makes it selective for mRNA

154
Q

Other types of primers we could use

A
  • Gene specific primer
  • Random primers
155
Q

Why would we use gene specific primers?

A

High specificity, but must rerun cDNA synthesis for every gene of interest

156
Q

Why would we use random primers?

A

Consists of multiple short primers sot hat all RNA molecules are selected: also good for RNA without a poly-A tail

157
Q

Reagents needed for cDNA synthesis

A

Buffer, primer, nucleotides, water, enzyme (reverse transcriptase)

158
Q

Purpose of qPCR

A

To amplify and detect in real time a specific sequence of DNA; AKA real-time PCR

159
Q

Difference between PCR and qPCR

A

PCR - accumulation of DNA is measured only at the end of the procedure
qPCR - accumulation of DNA is measured during and throughout the procedure

160
Q

The amount of DNA _____ with each PCR cycle

A

Doubles

161
Q

RT-PCR

A

Reverse transcription PCR: When RNA is not transcribed into DNA before, and is instead the first step in the actual qPCR procedure

162
Q

True or false: you cannot amplify RNA

A

True

163
Q

Two types of methods for detecting products of qPCR

A
  1. Sequence-specific probe
  2. SYBR Green Method
164
Q

Sequence-specific Probe Overview

A
  • A labeled fluorophore probe with a quencher, which prevents the detection of fluorophore when close by
  • Taq DNA polymerase has 5’ exonuclease activity, which will degrade the TaqMan probe (quencher) in its path, releasing the labeled fluorophore!
165
Q

SYBR Green Method Overview

A
  • A fluorescent dye that interacts and fluoresces in double stranded DNA
  • Binds to the minor groove of dsDNA and emits green light
166
Q

What is in the qPCR reaction tube?

A
  • Template DNA
  • Primers (forward and reverse)
  • Water (as needed)
    (following are supplied at 2x concentration)
  • Nucleotides
  • Buffer
  • MgCl2 (cofactor of enzyme)
  • Taq Polymerase
  • SYBR Green
167
Q

What is the VERY first step in qPCR?

A

Hot Start! - Denatures first strands of cDNA AND activated Taq, which is blocked by antibodies until it is heated

168
Q

Three main steps of qPCR

A

Denature, Anneal, Extension

169
Q

Denaturation

A
  • Heat DNA so it gives two single strands of DNA used as templates
  • Note that at the hot start, we have an RNA/DNA hybrid; following will just be dsDNA
170
Q

Annealing of Primers

A

Oligonucleotide primers specific for the gene of interest are annealed by rapidly lowering the temperature

171
Q

Extension of DNA

A

Heat is increased so that Taq polymerase can make a copy of the single stranded DNA from the primer

172
Q

How many cycles of qPCR do we go through?

A

40

173
Q

What happens at threshold of qPCR?

A

Enough SYBR green binds to dsDNA that can be detected above noise and is on the exponential part of the curve

174
Q

Threshold Cycle Value (Ct/Cq)

A

The point at which fluoresence of SYBR green reach threshold and the exponential part of the curve

175
Q

Plateau Phase of cPCR

A

When reaction components are used up, they become rate-limiting and the reaction slows and enters this phase, when the cycles cannot be counted

176
Q

At what phase of qPCR are measurements taken?

A

Exponential phase

177
Q

Purpose of a melt curve

A

Shows whether or not more than one product was made

178
Q

How many curves do you expect if there is only one product in a melt curve?

A

1

179
Q

What is a melt curve?

A

A gradual rise in temperature which melts dsDNA and causes an abrupt change in fluorescence

180
Q

No template control (NTC)

A
  • Only contains master mix
  • Should not give a Cq value
  • If a Cq value was given, there is extraneous and exogenous DNA (poor lab technique) - just repeat qPCR
181
Q

No Reverse Transcriptase (NRT)

A
  • Contains master mix and RNA
  • Should not give a Cq value
  • If a Cq value was given and there is no Cq value from NTC, gDNA from cockroach must have been in the sample
  • Run again with DNase
182
Q

Positive Control

A
  • cDNA that contain qPCR target sequence
  • Should give a Cq value
  • If doesn’t, qPCR was incorrectly set up, so rerun qPCR
183
Q

Negative Control

A
  • cDNA that does not contain the qPCR target sequence
  • Should not give a qPCR value
  • If fails, we are using the wrong primers
  • We don’t do this because all DNA has period and actin
184
Q

What is the reference gene that we used?

A

B-actin

185
Q

What assumption do we make with a use of a reference gene?

A

The independent variable doesn’t affect it

186
Q

How are we determining levels of period mRNA in groups?

A

Relative levels using a reference gene to determine that all the samples have the same total cDNA

187
Q

What do differences of Cq values of beta-actin suggest?

A

There are different amounts of cDNA added to the sample (not necessarily changes in mRNA)
- If this is the case, Cq values for period will be normalized to Cq values for beta-actin to adjust for any differences

188
Q

Differences between period and beta-actin qPCR

A
  • Primers
  • Annealing temperatures
189
Q

Change in Cq Method with a reference gene

A
  • Subtract Cqperiod from Cqactin
  • 2 to the power of this difference gives the relative expression in terms of arbitrary units

Lab Techniques in Neuroscience (3 decks)

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