Week 1A

Question 1

What is the study of behavioral neuroscience?

Answer 1

The study of the neural bases of psychological processes and behavior

Question 2

What is the importance of studying the brain and nervous system?

Answer 2

A greater ability to understand who and what we are as humans, improve quality of life by developing new treatments and cures for diseases and disorders of the nervous system, and reverse engineer biology as a means of creating new kinds of artificially intelligent machines/systems.

Understand
DisDis
Engineer

Question 3

What are the levels of organization in the nervous system?

Answer 3

Nervous system to subsystems to circuits to populations to neurons to compartments to molecules

NS (Skip) (n some - handsome)
NS S C P N C M

Question 4

Nerve cells are AKA

Answer 4

Neurons

Question 5

What are neurons/nerve cells?

Answer 5

Neurons are specialized cells that can generate rapid electrical impulses, called action potentials

Question 6

When was the earliest occurance of a nervous system in an animal?

Answer 6

Approximately hundreds of millions of years ago

Question 7

How did nervous systems differ from aquatic organisms to terrestrial ones?

Answer 7

Marine life exploited the chemistry of the surrounding seawater to generate action potentials. This created problems when animals tried to “bring their nervous systems with them” out of the ocean and onto land.

Question 8

Acknowledging the difference in the primordial and modern nervous system, explain how the modern nervous system is enabled to function.

Answer 8

The brain (cerebrum) and spinal cord are wrapped in three protective layers of membranes called meninges: the Dura Mater (thick outer layer), the Arachnoid (spongy middle layer), and the Pia Mater (thin inner layer).

DMAPM (D! Map ‘em!)

Inside the meninges, the nervous system floats in a liquid called cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) which is compositionally very similar to seawater.

Question 9

Briefly elaborate on the ventricular system as it relates to CSF.

Answer 9

CSF is constantly manufactured by an organ called the choroid plexus, which is localized in the hollow tubes and cavities throughout the brain known as ventricles that run throughout brain and spinal cord.

There are four choroid plexuses, two in the lateral ventricles, one in the third ventricle, and one in the fourth ventricle.

Question 10

What is meningitis?

Answer 10

Meningitis is inflammation of the meninges often from a bacterial or viral infection.

Question 11

What are the two major subdivisions? NS - S - CPNCM

Answer 11

The central nervous system (CNS)
- brain
- spinal cord

The peripheral nervous system (PNS)
- all neurons outside bone

Question 12

What are the brain subsystems?

Answer 12

Numerous subsystems in the brain, which are sometimes localized within certain anatomical regions, perform distinct cognitive/behavioral tasks.

Question 13

Briefly elaborate on the circuit level of neuroscience. NSS - C - PNCM

Answer 13

After determining links between neuroanatomical regions and specific functions, we can ask how neurons in that region are interconnected with one another to form circuits, which perform the specific functions.

Question 14

Make some morphological connections between some neurons and trees.

Answer 14

The neocortical chandelier neuron resembles the weeping willow tree.

The cerebellar purkinje neuron resembles the pompous tree.

The neocortical pyramidal neuron resembles the pine tree.

The dorsal root ganglion neuron resembles climbing vines.

Branching patterns of axonal and dendritic arbors/bifurcations exhibit diverse morphology, such as that observed among trees.

Question 15

How are some neural populations classified?

Answer 15

L proj prince!

Some neural populations are sometimes classified according to their efferent connections (this means, where they send their axons to make synapses onto other neurons)

Neurons that only send short range efferents (or efferent projections) to local neighbors are often called interneurons or local circuit neurons.

Neurons that send long-rance efferents to distant brain areas are often called projection neurons or principal neurons.

–
short range is inter or lcn
long range is proj princ

S inter lcn!
L proj princ!

Question 16

What is single-unit recording used for?

Answer 16

SUR, or single-unit recording, is an invasive method of measuring spike activity of neurons by surgically implanting electrodes into the brain.

This method is primarily used in research animals but human patients are sometimes used when suffering from neurological disorders.

Question 17

The nervous system is approximately equally comprised of which two main cell types?

Answer 17

Neurons and glial cells (aka glia)

Nervous system
/ \
50% Neurons 50% Glia

Question 18

What instrument can be used to acquire an optical recording of neural activity?

Answer 18

A mini-epifluorescence microscope with a baseplate and microendoscope

Question 19

What are neural compartments?

Answer 19

Neural compartments refer to the neural structure, and how it is divided anatomically according to our understanding.

A neuron can be subdivided into functionally distinct compartments:

Dendrites:
Treelike arborizations/bifurcations that RECEIVE signals from other cells

Soma:
Cell body containing nucleus

Axon:
Long branched cable that sends signals to other neurons, which is generally surrounded by a myelin sheath.

Axon terminals:

Tips of axon bifurcations/branches from which neurotransmitters are released onto target cells.

Question 20

What are synapses?

Answer 20

A synapse is a chemical junction/cleft in a small space where the presynaptic axon connects to the postsynaptic dendrite.

Question 21

In which direction does information mostly flow across neurons?

Answer 21

From presynaptic to postsynaptic