Week 1 Assigned Reading Flashcards
According to the article, how much energy does the brain typically use?
A) 5% of the body’s energy at rest
B) 10% of the body’s energy at rest
C) 20% of the body’s energy at rest
D) 50% of the body’s energy at rest
C) 20% of the body’s energy at rest
“Although it accounts for around 2 per cent of our body weight, it uses some 20 per cent of the energy we burn at rest.”
What molecule signals mental fatigue after prolonged focus?
A) Glucose
B) Melatonin
C) Cortisol
D) Adenosine
D) Adenosine
“One molecule associated with mental fatigue is adenosine, which is a breakdown product of adenosine triphosphate (ATP), the key compound involved in metabolism. ‘When your brain is burning through ATP, it’s producing adenosine and literally signalling to itself: ‘Hey, I’m tired now,’ ‘ says McNay.”
Brain scanning studies on sex differences have found:
A) Large, consistent differences between male and female brains
B) No differences between male and female brains
C) Small differences in size of certain brain structures, even when controlling for total brain size
D) Differences only in language processing areas
C) Small differences in size of certain brain structures, even when controlling for total brain size
“It did reveal sex differences in the size of certain brain structures, even when controlling for total brain size: about a third of regions were larger in men and about a third were larger in women. But these differences were small – generally just a few per cent.”
What did a recent study find in post-mortem brains related to microbes?
A) A wide variety of microbes in different brain regions
B) Only viruses were found
C) No microbes were present
D) Microbes only in the cerebellum
A) A wide variety of microbes in different brain regions
“They found a wide variety of microbes, with different types and amounts in different brain regions. Lathe estimates that this brain microbiome contains some 100,000 species, comprising a subset of around one-fifth the gut microbiome.”
How many cell types were identified in the human brain, according to the 2023 human brain cell atlas?
A) About 1000
B) About 3300
C) About 5500
D) About 10,000
B) About 3300
“In October 2023, the first draft of an entire human brain cell atlas was published, comprising more than 3300 types of cell.”
When does cognitive performance tend to peak during the day for most people?
A) Early morning
B) Around noon
C) Late evening
D) Midnight
B) Around noon
“As a result, your performance tends to follow a predictable path: it is highest in the morning, peaking at around noon, then it starts dipping and, aside from a slight peak in the afternoon, it is downhill all the way to bedtime.”
What concept from physics has been applied to study consciousness?
A) Relativity
B) Quantum entanglement
C) Thermodynamics
D) Entropy
D) Entropy
“In 2014, Robin Carhart-Harris at the University of California, San Francisco, and his colleagues hypothesised that entropy may be a particularly useful one. Entropy describes how disordered a system is.”
How did adolescents perform compared to adults in a task involving uncertain rewards?
A) Much worse
B) Slightly worse
C) Exactly the same
D) Better
D) Better
“Far from making poor decisions, adolescents aced the test, uncovering more coins than older or younger participants. Teens show a similar aptitude in simulations of foraging tasks, where participants choose between exploiting one plot of land or exploring potentially greener pastures.”
What networks in the brain are involved in creative thinking, according to the “dual process theory”?
A) Default, executive, and salience networks
B) Limbic system and basal ganglia
C) Only the motor and sensory networks
D) Only the language processing areas
A) Default, executive, and salience networks
“Far from making poor decisions, adolescents aced the test, uncovering more coins than older or younger participants. Teens show a similar aptitude in simulations of foraging tasks, where participants choose between exploiting one plot of land or exploring potentially greener pastures.”
According to the article, why might forgetting be beneficial?
A) It helps with generalizing concepts
B) It allows more sleep time
C) It improves short-term memory
D) It increases brain size
A) It helps with generalizing concepts
“Far from making poor decisions, adolescents aced the test, uncovering more coins than older or younger participants. Teens show a similar aptitude in simulations of foraging tasks, where participants choose between exploiting one plot of land or exploring potentially greener pastures.”
According to the article, how does the brain allocate energy during mentally challenging tasks?
A) It uses less energy overall
B) It uses more energy overall
C) It increases energy use in task-relevant areas while decreasing it in others
D) Energy use remains constant throughout the brain
C) It increases energy use in task-relevant areas while decreasing it in others
“When the demand of a mentally challenging task increases, you see increased metabolism in the neurons that are responsible for the task,” says Lavie. At the same time, you see corresponding decreases in other brain areas.
What did brain scanning studies reveal about sex differences in the brain?
A) No differences between male and female brains
B) Small differences in size of certain brain structures, even when controlling for total brain size
C) Large, consistent differences between male and female brains
D) Differences only in hormone-producing regions
B) Small differences in size of certain brain structures, even when controlling for total brain size
“It did reveal sex differences in the size of certain brain structures, even when controlling for total brain size: about a third of regions were larger in men and about a third were larger in women. But these differences were small – generally just a few per cent.”
According to the article, what role does adenosine play in mental fatigue?
A) It increases energy production
B) It enhances memory formation
C) It improves focus
D) It signals tiredness to the brain
D) It signals tiredness to the brain
“When your brain is burning through ATP, it’s producing adenosine and literally signalling to itself: ‘Hey, I’m tired now,’ says McNay.”
How might neuroplasticity explain potential differences between male and female brains?
A) It suggests all differences are innate
B) It indicates differences are solely due to hormones
C) It suggests differences could be a result of different life experiences
D) It proves there are no differences between male and female brains
C) It suggests differences could be a result of different life experiences
“So, even if men tend to have a slightly larger part of the brain responsible for, say, spatial skills, that could be because they are more likely to take jobs that involve those activities. In other words, any brain differences between sexes could be a consequence of different gender roles, not their cause.”
What did the research on the brain’s microbiome suggest about Alzheimer’s disease?
A) Microbes have no impact on Alzheimer’s
B) Certain microbes were over-represented in brains with Alzheimer’s
C) Alzheimer’s completely eliminates the brain’s microbiome
D) Only viruses are associated with Alzheimer’s
B) Certain microbes were over-represented in brains with Alzheimer’s
“The researchers also found that, in people with Alzheimer’s disease, certain microbes were over-represented. These included species of Cryptococcus and Candida fungi, Streptococcus and Bacillus bacteria, as well as a currently unidentified alga.”
