Nice to know

Question 1

What three basic cytoarchitectural features characterize the cerebral cortex?

Answer 1

Arranged in layers
Molecular layer closest to the surface (Layer 1) has no neurons
Pyramidal cells w/ apical dendrites in at least one layer that extends up to layer 1

Question 2

What are the three types of cortex in a mammal?

Answer 2

Neocortex
Hippocampus
Olfactory cortex

Question 3

Do we smell with our nose? No.

What do we smell with?

Answer 3

We smell with a small, thin sheet of cells high up in the nasal cavity called the olfactory epithelium. The olfactory epithelium consists of a layer of olfactory receptor cells, supporting cells, and basal cells. Odorants dissolve is the mucus layer and contact the cilia of the olfactory cells. Axons of the olfactory cells penetrate the bony cribriform plate and synapse on the olfactory bulb above.

Question 4

What is the most direct pathway for visual information to exit the eye?

Answer 4

From photoreceptors to bipolar cells to ganglion cells.

Horizontal cells and Amacrine cells influence retinal processing within said direct pathway.

Question 5

What are the only light-sensitive cells in the retina?

Answer 5

photoreceptors

Question 6

What is the only source of output from the retina?

Answer 6

Ganglion cells. No other retinal cell type projects an axon through the optic nerve.

Question 7

List the 7 layers of laminar organization of the retina in order of how light would pass through the eye.

Side note: The cell layers are named in reference to the middle of the eyeball, which is why the naming of them seems backwards.

Answer 7

1. Ganglion cell layer
2. Inner plexiform layer (ganglion/bipolar/amacrine synapses)
3. Inner nuclear layer (bipolar cell bodies; horizontal and amacrine cell bodies live here too)
4. Outer plexiform layer (bipolar/photoreceptor/horizontal synapses)
5. Outer nuclear layer (photoreceptor cell bodies)
6. Layer of photoreceptor outer segments
7. Pigmented epithelium