Week 1 Review

Question 1

CNS (Central Nervous System)

Answer 1

brain & spinal cord, retina.

Question 2

PNS (Peripheral Nervous System)

Answer 2

axons & neurons outside CNS, including most sense organs & nerves, large parts but not all of ANS & enteric nervous system

Question 3

ventral

Answer 3

from “venter”, meaning “abdomen”

Question 4

dorsal

Answer 4

from “dorsum” meaning “back”

Question 5

medial

Answer 5

towards the organism’s midline (defined as plane that bisects organism into left & right halves)

Question 6

lateral

Answer 6

away from the midsagittal plane (the midline)

Question 7

superior

Answer 7

toward the top of the head

Question 8

inferior

Answer 8

toward the neck

Question 9

coronal

Answer 9

one of several planes that cut through human body transversely, at right angles to body’s long axis; for the brain: plane that is parallel to face& perpendicular to midsaggital & horizontal planes

Question 10

ipsilateral

Answer 10

on or to the same side

Question 11

contralateral

Answer 11

on or to the opposite side

Question 12

Why do neuroscientists use the terms “superior” & “inferior” to describe the location of structures in human (not non-human) brains?

Answer 12

humans are bipedal & stand up right, top of head not positioned dorsally (toward the back) as in animals; terms “dorsal” & “ventral” replaced by “superior” & “inferior” in regards to human brain

Question 13

gyrus/gyri (plural)

Answer 13

outward fold (or ridge) of cerebral cortex (hill)

Question 14

sulcus/sulci (plural)

Answer 14

inward fold (or groove) of cerebral cortex (valley)

Question 15

what are the four major lobes?

Answer 15

frontal, parietal, temporal, & occipital

Question 16

The formation of cortical folds saves space compared to a smooth cortex. Why is this important to the organism?

Answer 16

large, ballooning brain requires large head, harder to pass thru mother’s birth canal & difficult to carry on neck. axonal connections between cortical areas, & between cortex & rest of brain, would have to be longer in a non-folded, ballooning cortex

Question 17

dendrites

Answer 17

highly branched, tapering processes that extend away from cell body

Question 18

axon

Answer 18

long, thin process

Question 19

glial cell

Answer 19

one of several non-neuronal cell types that are prominent components of nervous system; include astrocytes, microglia, oligodendrocytes, & Schwann cells

Question 20

basic components of the nervous system

Answer 20

cerebral cortex, corpus callosum, thalamus, midbrain, cerebellum, pons, medulla, spinal cord

Question 21

what structure is located between the frontal lobe & parietal lobe of the human brain?

Answer 21

central sulcus

Question 22

cutting a brain into several coronal sections can be done from_________.

Answer 22

rostral to caudal

Question 23

Why do you think Meynert & James used the example of a child seeing a flame to illustrate their dual reflex arc model?

Answer 23

They used a child because they needed a “naive” brain to illustrate how learning works. They used the flame touching behavior bc they needed 2 reflexes that a child might exhibit: reaching for the flame & withdrawing from pain.

Question 24

Why do you think so few genes are uniquely expressed in brain tissue?

Answer 24

Neurons must carry out a lot of functions that are common to all cells. Most importantly, what makes neurons special (& often different from one another) is the combination of genes they express, & the timing of which genes are expressed at what time in development.

Question 25

What kind of circuits do neurons form?

Answer 25

Neural circuits tend to be replete with diverging, converging, & reciprocal connections. Although neural circuits may look as if everything is connected to everything else, this is rarely the case.

Question 26

How do neuroscientists study the brain?

Answer 26

A major goal of neuroscience research is to discover general principles of brain organization. The search for these principles combines anatomical (neuroanatomical technique), physiological, & evolutionary (opto and chemogenetic techniques to study neuron function) perspectives.

Question 27

human neocortex divisible into which five lobes?

Answer 27

frontal, parietal, occipital, temporal, & the insula (buried beneath the frontal & temporal lobes)

Question 28

spinal cord

Answer 28

slender structure that weighs about 35 grams & extends halfway down vertebral canal

Question 29

brain

Answer 29

weighs about 3 lbs & sits atop the spinal cord