Multiple Choice

Question 1

Downs Syndrome

Answer 1

Risk increase with mother’s age Have 3 copies of chromosome 21 - Characteristic disfigurement, mental retardation, other health problems - Up to 50% of DS patients die in childhood because of cardiac, kidney, digestive, and immune problems -15 x more likely to get leukemia – Decrease density of axon and dendritic branching. – Decreased dendritic spines. - Link to Alzheimer’s Disease.

Question 2

Epileptic auras

Answer 2

Seizures often preceded by an aura, such as a smell, hallucination, or feeling suggest the epileptic focus warns of an impending seizure

Question 3

Regeneration CNS and PNS

Answer 3

Regeneration is virtually nonexistent in the CNS of adult mammals and unlikely, but possible, in the PNS Schwann cells promote regeneration Ogliodendroglia block regeneration

Question 4

Neurotransplantation

Answer 4

Fetal Tissue: fetal substantia nigra used to treat MPTP treated monkeys and was successful Stem Cell: - adult - embryonic - umbilical cord Experimentally used in Parkinson’s patients, so far so good

Question 5

Explicit vs. Implicit memory loss

Answer 5

explicit memories – conscious memories implicit memories – unconscious memories, as when H.M. shows the benefits of prior experience

Question 6

Korsakoff’s Syndrome

Answer 6

Amnesia, confusion, personality changes, and physical problems comparable to medial temporal lobe amnesia in early stages

Question 7

Medial Temporal Lobe Amnesia

Answer 7

semantic may function normally (general info) while episodic memory does not (events experienced)

Question 8

Long Term Potentiation

Answer 8

1. induction 2. maintenence 3. expression only occurs if presynaptic firing is followed by postsynaptic firing the effects are greatest in areas involved with learning and memory

Question 9

Chimeric Figures

Answer 9

Task for split brain patients, each hemisphere of a split-brain can learn independently and simultaneously

Question 10

Apraxia

Answer 10

difficulty performing movements when asked to do so out of context, can perform them spontaneously associated with damage to left hemisphere

Question 11

Cross Cueing

Answer 11

Non nueral communication betweenthe two hemispheres How: After incorrect response (LH), shakes head and frowns (RH), changes answer (LH)

Question 12

Cortical Asymmetries in Language

Answer 12

• Planum temporale (Wernicke’s Area) – Temporal lobe, posterior lateral fissure – Language comprehension • Heschl’s gyrus - primary auditory cortex • Frontal operculum (Broca’s Area) – Near face area of primary motor cortex – Language production

Question 13

Transcortical Sensory Aphasia

Answer 13

A speech disorder in which a person has difficulty comprehending speech and producing meaningful spontaneous speech Caused by damage to the region of the brain posterior to Wernicke’s area.

Question 14

Analytic, motor and linguistic theory

Answer 14

Analytic: left is analytic, right is synthetic, vague and untestable Motory: Left controls fine movement, left damage may produce speech and motor deficits Linguistic: Primary role of left is language

Question 15

Genetics and Schizophrenia

Answer 15

Clear genetic basis – Inherit an increased risk for the disorder Multiple causes – Several different chromosomes implicated – Associated with various early insults Appears that interference with the normal development of susceptible individuals may lead to development of the disorder

Question 16

Positive and Negative Symptoms

Answer 16

POSITIVE SYMPTOMS thought to be due to overactivity of several type of dopamine receptors NEGATIVE SYMPTOMS • thought to be due to brain damage • degree of brain damage (temporal and frontal lobes) correlated with severity of negative symptoms • frontallobesseem particularly affected

Question 17

Blood flow in mood disorder

Answer 17

Medial Frontal Regions: showed largest difference between control and depressive groups= 12% decrease in blood flow! Drevets et al. – Found increase in metabolism in amygdala and medial thalamus (both control emotional behavior) in depressed individuals – If antidepressant treatment is successful • see decrease in amygdala neural activity – However, if antidepressant treatment is unsuccessful • do NOT see decrease in neural activity

Question 18

Genetics and depression

Answer 18

Diathesis-Stress Model • Inherited genetic susceptibility (diathesis) + stress = depression Concordance rate higher for bipolar than unipolar

Question 19

Diathesis-Stress Model

Answer 19

Inherited genetic susceptibility (diathesis) + stress = depression • Support is indirect – Depressed people tend to release more stress hormones – Fail dexamethasone suppression test – normal negative feedback on stress hormones not functioning

Question 20

Types of Anxiety Disorders

Answer 20

• Generalized – stress and anxiety in the absence of a causal stimulus • Phobic – similar to generalized, but triggered by a stimulus • Panic disorders – may occur with other disorders, but also alone • Obsessive-compulsive disorders (OCDs) – obsessive thoughts alleviated by compulsive actions • Posttraumatic stress disorder

Question 21

Animal Models of Anxiety

Answer 21

• Assess anxiolytic potential of drugs - assume that defensive behaviors are motivated by fear, and that fear and anxiety are comparable – Elevated-plus-maze: time in open arms indicates less anxiety – Defensive-burying: More time burying, more anxiety – Risk-assessment test: Time freezing and assessing risk indicate anxiety level

Question 22

Balint’s Syndrome

Answer 22

– Bilateral damage to parietal lobes – Patients have tunnel vision; eyes stay focused on any small object that happens to be in foveal vision & ignores all other objects in vicinity – simultanagnosia

Question 23

Binding Problem

Answer 23

Binding: - How separately represented pieces of information about one thing are later brought together - Acheived by synchronized oscillation of neural groups in the brain (basically doing the wave)

Question 24

Attention and Consciousness

Answer 24

Selective Attention (cocktail phenomenon) Although by no means conclusive, current evidence suggests that… Top-down attention and perceptual consciousness are two distinct but often allied processes with distinct neurobiological processes. As a consequence, it will be important to carefully distinguish the neuronal correlates of consciousness from the neuronal correlates of selective attention (Tse et al., 2005).

Question 25

Organization of sensory system

Answer 25

Sensory areas of the cortex: - primary = input mainly from thalamic relay nuclei - secondary = input mainly from primary and secondary cortex within sensory system - association = input from more than one sensory system, usually from secondary sensory cortex

Question 26

Somatosensory Agnosias

Answer 26

Produced by large lesions to parietal cortex - asterognosia = inability to recognize objects by touch - asomatognosia = inability to recognize parts of one's own body

Question 27

Somatosensory Pathways

Answer 27

The somatosensory system is a diverse sensory system comprising the receptors and processing centres to produce the sensory modalities such as... touch, temperature, proprioception (body position), and nociception (pain). The sensory receptors cover the skin and epithelia, skeletal muscles, bones and joints, internal organs, and the cardiovascular system.

Question 28

Types of Brain Tumors

Answer 28

- gliomas = arise form glial cells, half of all brain tumors - meningiomas = encased or attached to meninges - infultrating = grow through surrounding tissue - metastatic = transfer of cells from one region to another

Question 29

NMDA Receptors and Glutamate

Answer 29

LTP is mostly commonly studied where NMDA glutamate receptors are prominent The NMDA receptor (NMDAR), a glutamate receptor, is the predominant molecular device for controlling synaptic plasticity and memory function.

Question 30

Closed Head Injuries

Answer 30

• Brain injuries due to blows that do not penetrate the skull – the brain collides with the skull • While there is no apparent brain damage with a single concussion, multiple concussions may result in a dementia referred to as “punch- drunk syndrome” – Contrecoup injuries – contusions are often on the side of the brain opposite to the blow • Contusions – closed-head injuries that involve damage to the cerebral circulatory system. A hematoma forms. • Concussion – when there is a disturbance of consciousness following a blow to the head and no evidence of structural damage.

Question 31

Punch-Drunk Syndrome

Answer 31

While there is no apparent brain damage with a single concussion, multiple concussions may result in a dementia referred to as “punch- drunk syndrome”

Question 32

Tardive Dyskinesia

Answer 32

Some antipyschotic drugs produces a motor disorder called tardive dyskinesia It is a disorder resulting in involuntary, repetitive body movements. The involuntary movements are tardive, meaning they have a slow or belated onset. This neurological disorder frequently appears after long-term or high-dose use of antipsychotic drugs

Question 33

Apoptosis

Answer 33

Programmed cell death Biochemical events lead to characteristic cell changes (morphology) and death. These changes include blebbing, cell shrinkage, nuclear fragmentation, chromatin condensation, and chromosomal DNA fragmentation.

Question 34

Neural Degeneration and Regeneration

Answer 34

• Various neurochemicals can block or limit neurodegeneration • Apoptosis inhibitor protein – introduced in rats via a virus • Nerve growth factor – blocks degeneration of damaged neurons • While regeneration does not normally occur in the CNS, experimentally it can be induced

Question 35

Schwann Cells vs. Oligodendroglia

Answer 35

Schwann cells prmote regeneration Oligodendroglia actively block regeneration; eliminate inhibition of oligodendroglia and regeneration can occur

Question 36

Rehabilitative Training

Answer 36

Strokes: repetitive training can reduce the spread of neural loss from the core damaged area. Tested via small motor lesions on monkeys, with constant training - limited the damage done. Spinal injury: patients were supported by a harness while walking on a treadmill. Most people became independent walkers again. Exercise: reduced age-related decline, and increase neurogenesis in hippocampus (in rats who ran wheels a lot).

Question 37

Alzheimer's Disease and Amnesia

Answer 37

Alzheimer's invoves major anterograde (forward acting) and retrograde (backward acting) amnesia in explicit memory tests; deficits in STM and some types of implicit memory • Decreased acetylcholine – Due to basal forebrain degeneration – Basal forebrain strokes can cause amnesia and attentional deficits which may be mistaken for memory deficits

Question 38

Memory Reconsolidation

Answer 38

When a memory is retrieved from LTM, it is temporarily held in STM and therefore susceptible to post traumatic amnesia until it is reconsolidated

Question 39

Z Lens

Answer 39

Advanced study of split-brains with a contact lens to restrict visual input to one hemisphere

Question 40

Left vs. Right Handers and Brain

Answer 40

92% R.Handers are L.Hemisphere dominant 69% L.Handers are L.Hemisphere dominant

Question 41

Split Brain Patients

Answer 41

• Corpus callosum – Largest cerebral commissure – Transfers learned information from one hemisphere to the other – When cut, each hemisphere functions independently • Studying split-brain cats – transect corpus callosum and optic chiasm so that visual information can’t cross • Left hemisphere can tell what it has seen, right hemisphere can show it.

Question 42

Dopamine Theory of Schizophrenia

Answer 42

Side effect of antipsychotic drugs suggested role of dopamine in schizophrenia In general, the higher affinity a drug has for DA receptors, the more effective it is in treating schizophrenia MANY problems with this theory

Question 43

Depression and the Role of Sleep

Answer 43

• More than 50% of depressed patients improve after one night of sleep deprivation. • Short-lasting: depression returns when normal sleep pattern resumes. • Not explained by any theory

Question 44

Brain Areas and NT in OCD

Answer 44

OCD: • partially genetic • part of the basal ganglia (caudate nucleus) involved in suppressing impulses appears dysfunctional • serotonin drugs enhance caudate activity and reduce OCD

Question 45

Neural Basis for Anxiety

Answer 45

• Drugs suggest a role for serotonin and GABA • Amygdala, due to its role in fear and defensive behavior, thought to be involved

Question 46

Blind sight: (What is it)

Answer 46

The ability to respond to visual stimuli even without awareness of that stimuli. E.g., a person will claim to be blind, but they will move out of the way of obstacle (due to scotoma). Can occur via V1 damage.

Question 47

Kluver Bucy Syndrome

Answer 47

Consumption of almost anything edible (even cigarettes and razorblades) due to lack of temporal lobe. Monkeys who had temporal lobes removed would eat and mount things indiscriminately.

Question 48

Visual Neglect

Answer 48

People ignore objects in contralateral half of body and left half of space around them ( due to damage to right parietal lobe).

Question 49

Visual Agnosia

Answer 49

Failure of recognition. Able to see objects, but unable to recognize them. E.g. damage to "what" pathway makes everything look abstract / not recogniable. E.g. John in the train station.

Question 50

Scotomas

Answer 50

Areas of blindness in visual field – the blind areas are “filled in” by the brain (e.g. clock in blind spot will be ‘replaced’ by a wall). Due to V1 damage, stroke, migraines.

Question 51

Cutaneous Receptors

Answer 51

Free nerve endings—temperature and pain.

Question 52

Somatosensory homunculus:

Answer 52

“Little man.” Map of somatosensory cortex.

Question 53

Strokes: Aneurysm , Cerebral hemorrhage, ischemia... and what processes causes most stroke damage?

Answer 53

Aneurysm: weakened point in blood vessel, Cerebral hemorrhage: bleeding in the brain (no cure). Ischemia: disruption of blood supply, most common, less severe. Ischemia causes: Thrombosis (plug forms), Embolism (plug forms elsewhere & moves to brain), Arteriosclerosis (blood vessel thickens due to fat deposits) Most stroke damage is a consequence of excess neurotransmitter release- especially glutamate (excitatory neurotransmitter), leading to excess sodium and calcium (NA+ CA++) Drug called t-PA can break up clots - early treatment essential.

Question 54

Encapsulated verses infiltrating tumor:

Answer 54

Encapsulated tumor: Growing within their own membranes= puts pressure on rest of the brain. THey grow outside brain, recovery is usually good. Usually benign, surgically removable. Most brain tumors are infiltrating. Grow diffusely through surrounding tissue. Malignant, and difficult to remove or destroy

Question 55

Contusions and hematoma:

Answer 55

Contusion: Closed head injuries that involve damage to the cerebral circulatory system. often on the side of the brain opposite to the blow. Hematoma: A bruise or collected blood, forms

Question 56

Brain infections: different types

Answer 56

Bacterial Infections: Syphilis – may produce a syndrome of insanity and dementia known as general paresis. (May be in dormant stage for years) Viral Infections: Rabies – high affinity for the nervous system Mumps and herpes – typically attack tissues other than the brain Infections can lead to: limiting BLOOD SUPPLY, change oxygen/glucose metabolism. It can also alter the characteristics of the membrane (electrical properties) symptoms: lowering blood pressure, severe headaches, nausea, confusion

Question 57

Neurotoxins : Toxic psychosis:

Answer 57

Chronic insanity produced by a neurotoxin—(Mad Hatter—mercury exposure lead to psychosis

Question 58

Epilepsy: partial vs. generalized seizures

Answer 58

PARTIAL SEIZURES: Simple: symptoms are primarily sensory or motor or both (Jacksonian seizures). symptoms spread as epileptic discharge spreads Complex: often restricted to temporal lobe (temporal lobe epilepsy) . patient engages in compulsive and repetitive simple behaviors (“automatism”). more complex behaviors seem normal GENERALIZED SEIZURES: Grand mal: Loss of consciousness and equilibrium. Tonic-clonic convulsions. Rigidity (tonus) and tremors (clonus). Resulting hypoxia may cause brain damage Petit mal: Not associated with convulsions. A disruption of consciousness associated with cessation of ongoing behavior

Question 59

Neural reorganization and recovery:

Answer 59

Reorganization of primary sensory and motor systems has been observed following damage to peripheral nerves and cortical areas, occurs within minutes. Difficult to distinguish between true recovery and compensatory changes.

Question 60

Blocking neurodegeneration:

Answer 60

Apoptosis inhibitor protein: Introduced in rats via a virus & blocks loss of hippocampal cells Nerve growth factor: Blocks degeneration of damaged neurons Estrogens: Limit or delay neuron death Neuroprotective molecules tend to promote regeneration

Question 61

Lashley’s Engram: (Studies on Memory)

Answer 61

Wanted physical representation in the brain of what has been learned, doesn’t matter where cut, but amount cut did matter (learning is everywhere in brain).

Question 62

Radial arm and Morris Maze:

Answer 62

Radial Arm: Rats put in pool and have to swim to find platform, center location with arms protruding out, some with food—rats learn to only go to food arms. hippocampal-damage rats have trouble, often die. :( Morris Maze: Ability to only visit baited arms of the maze is a measure of reference memory (memory for the general principles and skills required to perform a task. Hippocampus seems to play a role in spatial memory in many species – not just rats.

Question 63

Delayed non-matching to sample test (task):

Answer 63

Monkey picks object to get food, then screen lowers and a new object is added with food, normal monkeys pick new object, medial temporal lobe lesioned monkeys can’t. Shows importance of medial termporal lobe with learning and memory. Medial temporal lobe damage is related to amnesia as well.

Question 64

Anterograde verses retrograde amnesia:

Answer 64

Anterograde is forward acting amnesia (can’t from new memories). Retrograde is backward acting. (can’t remember the past)

Question 65

Theories of hippocampal function: 1. Standard consolidation theory 2. Multiple trace theory 3. Cognitive map theory 4. Configural association theory 5. Spatial arrangement theory

Answer 65

1. Standard consolidation theory— Hippocampus temporarily stores memories. 2. Multiple trace theory—Hippocampus stores memories as long as they exist. 3. Cognitive map theory—Collects and stores allocentric maps of the world. 4. Configural association theory—Retains behavioral significance of combinations of stimuli. 5. Spatial arrangement theory—Recognizing spatial arrangements of objects.

Question 66

What do Cerebral Commissures do?:

Answer 66

Connect two hemispheres of brain (corpus callosum and optic chiasm)

Question 67

Helping hand phenomenon:

Answer 67

The hand that knows may correct the other in split brain. In test in which two visual stimuli were presented simultaneously. As right hand reached out to pick up what the left hemisphere saw (orange), the left hand (right hemisphere) dealt with this by grabbing the other hand away from the orange and towards the pencil.

Question 68

Pure word deafness:

Answer 68

Damage to left temporal lobe • Produces disorder of auditory recognition • People are not deaf, but cannot understand speech • Can recognize non-speech sounds • Can recognize emotion expressed in speech • They also have excellent speech

Question 69

Affective disorders: Causal Factors & Treatment

Answer 69

Depression / bipolar - we know the drill here. Causes: Reactive – triggered by negative event VS. Endogenous – no apparent cause Biopsych causes: • Genetics - Concordance rate higher for bipolar than unipolar. More concordance in identical twins than fraternal twins. • Stressful experiences - depressives report more stress.

Question 70

Antidepressant drugs: (MAOI’s, Tricyclic, Monoamine Reuptake Inhibitors, Lithium, SSRI’s)

Answer 70

• Monoamine oxidase inhibitors (MAOIs): Prevent breakdown of monoamines (NE and 5HT)... Must avoid foods high in tyramine (e.g., cheese, wine, pickles, etc.) or dangerous drop in blood pressure. • Tricyclic antidepressants: – Block reuptake of serotonin and norepinephrine– Safer than MAOIs, but high dose needed to be therapeutic & can promote weight gain. • Selective monoamine reuptake inhibitors: – E.g., Prozac, Paxil, Zoloft • Lithium- mood stabilizer

Question 71

Monamine theory of depression:

Answer 71

Underactivity of serotonin and norapinefrine. – Consistent with drug effects – Up-regulation of receptors at autopsy of depressed individuals consistent with this • Increase in NE and 5HT receptors due to low levels of NT eliciting a compensatory response • Problem with theory – not all respond to monoamine agonists (only 25% of patients)

Question 72

Brain damage and unipolar depression:

Answer 72

Damage to amygdale and PFC (involved in perception and experience of emotion.) Consistent with anhedonia.

Question 73

Treatment of anxiety disorders (medication):

Answer 73

Benzodiazepines (ex: Valium): Also used as hypnotics, anticonvulsants, muscle relaxants. GABAA agonists – bind to receptor and facilitate effects of GABA. Serotonin agonists (Buspirone, SSRIs): – Reduce anxiety without sedation and other side effects... but Highly addictive

Question 74

Tourette’s syndrome: Symptoms, Causes, Brain

Answer 74

Symptoms: 1st stage: tics, involuntary movements (face, limbs, or whole body) 2nd stage: inarticulate cries are added to tics 3rd stage: echolalia (repeat what others say) and coprolalia (obscene speech) Causes: not sure yet. No comparible animals, no identified gene, fMRI scans difficult due to tics. Brain: Abnormality in basal ganglia, thalamus, and cortex feedback circuit. Treatment: neuroleptics, or deep brain stimulation.

Question 75

Schizophrenia and brain areas:

Answer 75

(See essay section)

Question 76

Antipsychotic drugs:

Answer 76

Chlorpromazine/thorazine—calms agitation due to dopamine overactivity. Haldol—binds to D receptors, neuroleptics like Clozapine

Question 77

Charles Bonnet syndrome:

Answer 77

• Experience vivid hallucinations in blind spots. • Damage in visual pathway • Either completely or partially blind • Experience vivid, often bizarre visual hallucinations -replace reality that is missing (e.g. tiny policemen, monkey in lap)

Question 78

Krick & Koch’s theory of Consciousness:

Answer 78

• Oscillations are neural correlates of experience • Propose that binding is achieved by synchronized oscillations of neuronal groups in brain • When 2 pieces of info are bound, then relevant neural groups oscillate with same frequency and phase • Certain 35-75 hertz oscillations in cortex are the basis of consciousness -Oscillations are correlated with awareness in different modalities -Suggest mechanism by which binding is achieved.

Question 79

Capgras-imposter syndrome:

Answer 79

-Intact intelligence / mental processes, but suffer imposter syndrome: Believe that familiar people are imposters (e.g. parents). Also, believe that familiar things such as house, dog, etc. are imposters. • Occurs in conjunction with traumatic brain injury, Due to a disconnection between the recognition and emotional areas of the brain... e.g. Temporal lobes and the limbic system (amygdale) • Galvanic Skin Response: no reaction when seeing father's face. • Sees familiars as genuine over the phone, due to separate audio pathways. • Condition tends to heal by itself and goes away

Question 80

Cotard’s:

Answer 80

All sensory areas are disconnected from amygdala—person thinks he or she is dead.

Question 81

Anosognia:

Answer 81

Denial of neglect patients—ignore fact that half of body is paralyzed. Anosnogia patients do a-knows that half their body is paralyzed.

Question 82

Prosopagnosia:

Answer 82

Agnosia for faces and other specifics (cows, chairs). -Due to damage to ventral "what" pathway. -Unconsciously recognizes faces at some level, evidenced by increased galvanic skin response.

Question 83

Somatosensory systems damage: Asterognosia:

Answer 83

Asterognosia—inability to recognize objects by touch. Mnemonic: Asteroglide patients couldn't recognize Astro the dog by petting it.

Question 84

Asomatagnosia:

Answer 84

Failure to recognize parts of one’s own body. Remember, soma = body.

Question 85

Simultanagnosia:

Answer 85

Difficulty in visually attending to more than one object at a time. A Disorder of attention.

Question 86

Contrecoup injury:

Answer 86

Injuries (contusions) are often on side of brain opposite the blow.

Question 87

Neurotoxins (drugz)

Answer 87

Neurotoxic effects of alcohol, some antipsychotic drugs cause tardive dyskinesia. Some antipsychotic drugs produce motor disorder caused tarditive dyskinesia (involuntary movements) Recreational drugs, such as alcohol, may cause brain damage Some neurotoxins are endogenous- produced by the body