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Question 1

What is GABA?

Answer 1

An inhibitory neurotransmitter

gamma-Aminobutyric acid

Question 2

What is glutamate

Answer 2

An excitory neurotransmitter. The most prevalent neurotransmitter in vertebrates, accounting for 90% of all neurotransmitters found in the human brain. An anion of glutamic acid.

Question 3

What are peptides

Answer 3

Short chains of amino acids linked by peptide (amide) bonds

Question 4

What does cutaneous mean?

Answer 4

Also known as ‘dermal’ is anything which is related to the skin. Subcutaneous is below the skin.

Question 5

What is ATP?

Answer 5

Adenosine triphosphate. A complex organic chemical that provides energy to drive many processes in living cells eg. muscle contraction and nerve impulse propogation. Can be referred to as the molecular unit of currency for energy transfer. ATP production occurs mainly in the mitochondria which comprises nearly 25% of the volume of a single cell.

Question 6

Visceral

Answer 6

Related to the viscera or organs. Visceral fat is that which encloses the organs and can cause damage to them

Question 7

Adequate stimulus

Answer 7

The amount and type of energy that is required to stimulate a specific sensory organ

Question 8

Afferent v Efferent

Answer 8

Afferent neurons are nerve cells that take sensory stimuli from the source to the CNS. Efferent neurons are motor neurons that take motor signals from the CNS out to the muscles to cause movement.

Question 9

Synapse and Synaptic Cleft

Answer 9

Synapse comes from the Greek ‘synapsis’ or conjunction and is the junction between the pre-synaptic cell and post synaptic cell. The synaptic cleft is the gap between the two cells.

Question 10

What is a phagocyte?

Answer 10

A type of cell that can ingest and sometimes digest foreign bodies such as bacteria and dead or dying cells.

Large numbers in blood

Question 11

What is a corpuscle?

Answer 11

Means ‘small body’or particle.

Can be a red blood cell or refer to a nerve ending or a Tacticle Corpuscle such as Meissner’s corpuscles or Pacininian Corpuscles which are a type of nerve ending in the skin that is responsible for sensitivity to light touch.

Question 12

What is the autonomic nervous system?

Answer 12

The autonomic nervous system (ANS),is a control system that acts largely unconsciously and regulates bodily functions such as the heart rate, digestion, respiratory rate, pupillary response, urination, and sexual arousa

This system is the primary mechanism in control of the fight-or-flight response

Question 13

What is white matter?

Answer 13

White matter is mainly made up of myelinated axons and glia. The high lipid content in myelin gives white matter its colour. White matter connects neurons and is associated with learning. Prevalent in the inner part of the brain which is surrounded by the grey matter of the cortex.

Question 14

What is the medulla oblongata?

Answer 14

Control centres for heart and lungs

Located in the lowest part of the brainstem and continues from the spinal cord within the skull.

Question 15

What is the cerebral cortex?

Answer 15

A cortex is the outer layer of an organ. The cerebral cortex is the outer layer of the cerebrum, also known as grey matter. Plays an important role in consciousness.

Question 16

Anterior and posterior

Answer 16

Nearer to the front or rear respectively

Question 17

Gyrus

Answer 17

Ridge or fold between two clefts on the cerebral surface of the brain More….+ picture

Question 18

Organelles

Answer 18

Structures within cells that have specific functions. Just like organs each organnelle contributes in its own way to help the cell function well as a whole. Organelles include the nucleus, mitochrondria and chloropasts.

Question 19

What is ganglia and what examples?

Answer 19

Nerve cell clusters

Question 20

What is piloerection?

Answer 20

Involuntary erection or bristling of hairs on the arm or legs due to a sympathetic reflex usually caused by cold, shock, fright or due to a sympathomimetic agent.

Question 21

What does cholinergic mean?

Answer 21

Choline is a primary component of the neurotransmitter acetylcholine. The parasympathetic nervous system which functions almost exclusively with the neurotransmitter acetylcholine is said to be almost entirely cholinergic. Functions with inositol as a basic constituent of lecithin.

Question 22

What is adrenergic?

Answer 22

Denotes nerve cells in which adrenaline, noradrenaline, or a similar substance acts as a neurotransmitter

Question 23

What is preganglionic?

Answer 23

Running from the the central nervous system to a ganglion.

Question 24

What is a gland

Answer 24

An organ in humans or animals which secretes particular chemical substances for use in th body or for discharge in the surroundings.

Question 25

What does contralateral mean?

Answer 25

Relating to the side of the body opposite to that on which a particular structure or condition occurs.

Question 26

What is the motor cortex?

Answer 26

The motor cortex is the region of the cerebral cortex in the frontal lobe involved in the planning, control, and execution of voluntary movements.

Question 27

What are Ligand-gated ion channels ?

Answer 27

Transmembrane ion-channel proteins

Ligand-gated ion channels (aka ionotropic receptors), are a group of transmembrane ion-channel proteins which open to allow ions such as Na+, K+, Ca2+, and/or Cl− to pass through the membrane in response to the binding of a chemical messenger (i.e. a ligand), such as a neurotransmitter.

When a presynaptic neuron is excited, it releases a neurotransmitter from vesicles into the synaptic cleft. The neurotransmitter then binds to receptors located on the postsynaptic neuron. If these receptors are ligand-gated ion channels, a resulting conformational change opens the ion channels, which leads to a flow of ions across the cell membrane. This, in turn, results in either a depolarization, for an excitatory receptor response, or a hyperpolarization, for an inhibitory response.

Question 28

What is a synaptic vesicle?

Answer 28

A synaptic vesicle is container of neurotransmitters in the synapse

In a neuron, synaptic vesicles (or neurotransmitter vesicles) store various neurotransmitters that are released at the synapse. The release is regulated by a voltage-dependent calcium channel. Vesicles are essential for propagating nerve impulses between neurons and are constantly recreated by the cell. The area in the axon that holds groups of vesicles is an axon terminal or “terminal bouton”. Up to 130 vesicles can be released per bouton over a ten-minute period of stimulation at 0.2 Hz.[1] In the visual cortex of the human brain, synaptic vesicles have an average diameter of 39.5 nanometers (nm) with a standard deviation of 5.1 nm

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Question 29

What is the Circle of Willis?

Answer 29

The Circle of Willis is a structure located around eye level that provides a blood supply to the brain and neighboring structures.

A circulatory anastomosis (i.e., a connection between two blood vessels, such as between arteries, veins, or between an artery and a vein (arterio-venous anastomosis)) that encircles the stalk of the pituitary gland and allows distribution of blood to the brain and nearby structures.

Question 30

How many and what is the distribution of neurons in the brain?

Answer 30

About 86 billion neurons in the brain, of which is about 70 billion in the cerebellum.

Question 31

What is the hypothalamus?

Answer 31

The hypothalamus can be considered the most important part of the brain for the autonomous nervous system. It plays a crucial role in many important functions, including: releasing hormones. regulating body temperature.

Located just above the midbrain, near the pituitary gland.

Question 32

What are the four lobes and how are they named?

Answer 32

Frontal, parietal, temporal and occcipital.

Named according the parts of the skull that they reside in

Question 33

What are the main components surrouding the brain?

Answer 33

Meninges

DAP : Dura mater, Arachnoid mater, Pia mater

Subarachnoid space holds the cerebral spinal fluid of which the main function is brain cushioning.

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Question 34

What are Golgi cells?

Answer 34

Type 1 : Pyramidal cells with long axons, which leave the grey matter of the CNS, traverse the white matter, and terminate in the periphery.

Type 2 : Stellate (star shaped) neurons with short axons in the cerbral and cerbellar cortices and in the retina.

Def needs work

Question 35

What is histology?

Answer 35

Histology, aka microanatomy, is the branch of biology which studies the tissues of animals and plants using microscopy. It is commonly studied using a light microscope or electron microscope, the specimen having been sectioned, stained, and mounted on a microscope slide

Question 36

What is a dermatome?

Answer 36

A dermatome is an area of skin that is mainly supplied by a single spinal nerve.

There are 8 cervical nerves (C1 being an exception with no dermatome), 12 thoracic nerves, 5 lumbar nerves and 5 sacral nerves. Each of these nerves relays sensation (including pain) from a particular region of skin to the brain.

Question 37

What are the four divisions of the spinal cord (from top to bottom) and how many in each?

Answer 37

CTLS. There are 30 vertebrates in total

Cervical (C1 - C8)

Thoracic (T1 - T12)

Lumbar (L1 - L5)

Sacral (S1 - S5)

Question 38

What is the diencephalon?

Answer 38

The caudal (posterior) part of the forebrain, containing the epithalamus, thalamus, hypothalamus, and ventral thalamus and the third ventricle

Question 39

What is the difference between an artery and a vein?

Answer 39

Arteries pump blood away from the heart. Arteries carry oxygenated blood (with the exception of the pulmonary artery and umbilical artery).

Veins pump de-oxygenated blood (except for above)towards the heart.

Question 40

What is the neocortex?

Answer 40

The outer layer of the cerebrum, consisting of six layers.

The neocortex is the top layer of the cerebral hemispheres, 2-4 mm thick, and made up of six layers, labelled I to VI (with VI being the innermost and I being the outermost).

The neocortex is part of the cerebral cortex (along with the archicortex and paleocortex - which are cortical parts of the limbic system).

It is involved in higher functions such as sensory perception, generation of motor commands, spatial reasoning, conscious thought, and in humans, language.

The neocortex consists of grey matter surrounding the deeper white matter of the cerebrum.

Question 41

What are 6 of the top brain imaging techniques and their force ?

Answer 41

fMRI - Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (electromagnetic)

CT - Computed Tomography (radiation)

PET - Positron Emission Tomography (radiation)

EEG - Electroencephalography (electrical activity)

MEG - Magnetoencephalography (magnetic/electrical)

NIRS - Near Infrared spectroscopy (optical)

Question 42

What is fMRI?

Answer 42

Detects brain activity be detecting changes in blood oxygenation and flow.

Functional magnetic resonance imaging, or fMRI, is a technique for measuring brain activity. It works by detecting the changes in blood oxygenation and flow that occur in response to neural activity – when a brain area is more active it consumes more oxygen and to meet this increased demand blood flow increases to the active area. fMRI can be used to produce activation maps showing which parts of the brain are involved in a particular mental process.

How Does an fMRI Work?

The cylindrical tube of an MRI scanner houses a very powerful electro-magnet. A typical research scanner has a field strength of 3 teslas (T), about 50,000 times greater than the Earth’s field. The magnetic field inside the scanner affects the magnetic nuclei of atoms. Normally atomic nuclei are randomly oriented but under the influence of a magnetic field the nuclei become aligned with the direction of the field. The stronger the field the greater the degree of alignment. When pointing in the same direction, the tiny magnetic signals from individual nuclei add up coherently resulting in a signal that is large enough to measure. In fMRI it is the magnetic signal from hydrogen nuclei in water (H2O) that is detected.

Question 43

What is a CT scan?

Answer 43

CT - Computed Tomography (formerly know as a CAT scan)

CT

Computed tomography (CT) scanning builds up a picture of the brain based on the differential absorption of X-rays. During a CT scan the subject lies on a table that slides in and out of a hollow, cylindrical apparatus. An x-ray source rides on a ring around the inside of the tube, with its beam aimed at the subjects head. After passing through the head, the beam is sampled by one of the many detectors that line the machine’s circumference. Images made using x-rays depend on the absorption of the beam by the tissue it passes through. Bone and hard tissue absorb x-rays well, air and water absorb very little and soft tissue is somewhere in between.

CTscans reveal the gross features of the brain but do not resolve its structure well.

Question 44

What is PET scanning?

Answer 44

Positron Emission Tomography (PET) uses trace amounts of short-lived radioactive material to map functional processes in the brain. When the material undergoes radioactive decay a positron is emitted, which can be picked up be the detector. Areas of high radioactivity are associated with brain activity.

Often used in conjunction with CT scanning

Question 45

What is EEG scanning?

Answer 45

EEG is the measurement of brain electrical activity through electrodes placed on the scalp.

Electroencephalography (EEG) is the measurement of the electrical activity of the brain by recording from electrodes placed on the scalp. The resulting traces are known as an electroencephalogram (EEG) and represent an electrical signal from a large number of neurons.

EEGs are frequently used in experimentation because the process is non-invasive to the research subject. The EEG is capable of detecting changes in electrical activity in the brain on a millisecond-level. It is one of the few techniques available that has such high temporal resolution.

Question 46

What is MEG?

Answer 46

Magnetoencephalography (MEG) is an imaging technique used to measure the magnetic fields produced by electrical activity in the brain via extremely sensitive devices known as SQUIDs. These measurements are commonly used in both research and clinical settings. There are many uses for the MEG, including assisting surgeons in localizing a pathology, assisting researchers in determining the function of various parts of the brain, neurofeedback, and others.

Question 47

What is NIRS?

Answer 47

Near infrared spectroscopy is an optical technique for measuring blood oxygenation in the brain. It works by shining light in the near infrared part of the spectrum (700-900nm) through the skull and detecting how much the remerging light is attenuated. How much the light is attenuated depends on blood oxygenation and thus NIRS can provide an indirect measure of brain activity.

Question 48

What does pathology mean?

Answer 48

Pathology is concerned mainly with the causal study of disease.

(From pathos Meaning “experience” or “suffering”)

The word pathology itself may be used broadly to refer to the study of disease in general, incorporating a wide range of bioscience research fields and medical practices. However, when used in the context of modern medical treatment, the term is often used in a more narrow fashion to refer to processes and tests which fall within the contemporary medical field of “general pathology,” an area which includes a number of distinct but inter-related medical specialties that diagnose disease, mostly through analysis of tissue, cell, and body fluid samples. Idiomatically, “a pathology” may also refer to the predicted or actual progression of particular diseases (as in the statement “the many different forms of cancer have diverse pathologies”), and the affix path is sometimes used to indicate a state of disease in cases of both physical ailment (as in cardiomyopathy) and psychological conditions (such as psychopathy).[1] A physician practicing pathology is called a pathologist.