The brain

Question 1

What is the cerebral cortex involved in?

Answer 1

1. Coordinates complex conscious behaviours.

Question 2

How has the cerebral cortex been studied?

Answer 2

1. Looking at people who have had strokes and seeing differences in their behaviour.

Question 3

What is the somatic sensory part of the cerebral cortex involved in?

Answer 3

1. Receives inputs from sense of touch.

Question 4

What is the motor part of the cerebral cortex involved in?

Answer 4

1. Output region that generates action potentials that are involved in movement.
2. Provide output to skeletal muscles.
3. Different parts for different area of muscle

Question 5

What is the visual part of the cerebral cortex involved in?

Answer 5

1. Input from the eyes that activate neurones to allow sight.
2. Primary visual cortex- sees something
3. Secondary visual cortex- interprets what we see- learns and stores visual memories

Question 6

What is the auditory part of the cerebral cortex involved in?

Answer 6

Input from the ears.

Question 7

What is the somatosensory cortex?

Answer 7

1. The pathway that allows touch - the impulse starts in the spinal cord and is transported to one region of the brain and then to the somatosensory cortex.
2. The somatosensory cortex is a strip of cortex that lies in the parietal lobe
3. Different parts of somatosensory cortex (touch) receive action potentials from different areas of the periphery.
4. Much more brain given to parts of body with a better sense of touch e.g. hands and mouth over back.

Question 8

How does the motor cortex work?

Answer 8

1. Neurones create action potentials that travel down the spinal cord to reach the skeletal muscles to move them.
2. Premotor cortex- coordinates the movement according to what is seen

Question 9

What is Broca’s area involved in?

Answer 9

1. Speaking language

Question 10

What is the prefrontal cortex involved in?

Answer 10

1. Risk but also personality and mood.

Question 11

What is the cerebellum involved in?

Answer 11

1. Involved in motor memory
2. How to walk, ride a bike
3. Useful part of brain to look at synaptic integration
4. Have some 1 to 1 relationships- 1 input and 1 output
5. Also have fibres which activates another fibre which might communicate with thousands of cells- 1 input to a lot of output

Question 12

What are examples of “fast” neurotransmitters?

Answer 12

Glutamate and GABA.

Question 13

What are examples of slower neurotransmitters?

Answer 13

5-HT (serotonin), acetylcholine, dopamine and noradrenaline.

Question 14

What is noradrenaline involved in?

Answer 14

1. Sleep, arousal, fear and stress, motivation, attention

2. Collection of neurones top of brainstem release noradrenaline

Question 15

What is 5-HT(seratonin) involved in?

Answer 15

1. Cell bodies in different parts of the brain stem

2. Motivation, sleepiness, mood

Question 16

What do SSRIs do?

Answer 16

1. Prevent the reuptake of 5-HT
2. So more in synaptic cleft, so more serotonin in the brain
3. To increase the mood of those suffering from depression and anxiety.

Question 17

What involvement does acetylcholine have in the brain?

Answer 17

1. What allows skeletal muscles to move- synapses
2. Cortex releases input from cholingenic neurones
3. Hippocampus- involved in memory- Ach neurones first to die in Alzheimer’s

Question 18

What is dopamine involved in?

Answer 18

1. Two brain regions with cell bodies that release it
2. Basal ganglia- motor control- dopamine needed in basal ganglia to move properly
3. Rewards- pathway to frontal cortex
4. Motor control, voluntary movement, euphoria and reward - linked to cravings for recreational drugs after they have been used.

Question 19

cerebral cortex- what does it consist of?

Answer 19

1. parietal, occiptal, temporal and frontal lobes

2. And central sulcus

Question 20

brainstem

Answer 20

1. Controls simple things, necessary for survival
2. All nerve fibres that relay signals between the forebrain, cerebellum and spinal cord pass through here
3. Where the spinal cord meets the brain and is involved in the control of heart rate (unconscious and autonomic)

Question 21

cortex

Answer 21

1. involved in feelings and emotions

Question 22

cerebellum

Answer 22

1. controlling posture and balance

2. memories of movement

Question 23

how does the somatosensory cortex work?

Answer 23

1. within it you can map parts of the body from which input is received
2. endings of axons of specific somatic pathways are grouped according to peripheral location of receptors that give input to the pathways

Question 24

homunculus

Answer 24

1. a sensory homunculus represents a map of brain areas dedicated to sensory processing for different anatomical divisions of the body

Question 25

visual cortex

Answer 25

1. specific ascending pathways from eyes connect to primary cortical receiving area in the occipital lobe 2. secondary visual cortex allows us to interpret what our eyes are telling us

Question 26

auditory cortex

Answer 26

1. specific ascending pathways from the ears go to the auditory cortex

Question 27

basal ganglia

Answer 27

1. enable different parts of the cortex to communicate, 2. control movement and posture

Question 28

what is frontal cortex associated with

Answer 28

decision, risk assessment

Question 29

glutamate

Answer 29

1. excitatory | 2. opens ligand gated Na+ channel

Question 30

GABA

Answer 30

1. inhibitory | 2. opens ligand gated Cl- ion channel

Question 31

slow neurotransmitters

Answer 31

1. activate G-protein coupled receptors

Question 32

what is ach involved in

Answer 32

1. memory

Question 33

what serotonin involved in

Answer 33

1. control of mood | 2. excitatory effect on pathways that control muscles, and inhibitory on ones that mediate sensations

Question 34

What is difference between highly evolved organisms and others

Answer 34

1. Large proportion of brain is cerebral cortex which is what separates highly evolved organisms from others like lobsters

Question 35

What are the 4 Brodmann's areas

Answer 35

1. Motor- causes movement of skeletal muscles 2. Somatic sensory- activated by touch 3. Visual- activated by information from the eyes 4. Auditory- input form ears

Question 36

What is Wernicke’s area involved in

Answer 36

1. involved in language

Question 37

What controls how parts of the cortex interacts with each other

Answer 37

1. Mid-brain 2. gate control for how parts of cortex can communicate with each other 3. Normally neurones don’t directly interact with each other in cortex

Question 38

How can strokes help our understanding of the brain

Answer 38

1. Stroke- blockage in blood vessel causes death in certain part of brain 2. Helpful to determine which area is associated with which function 3. Phineas Gage- lost big part of prefrontal cortex, completely changed his personality 4. Shows prefrontal cortex is what affects our personality