Neuroscience 1 - Basic structure and function

Question 1

What are the four cerebral hemispheres?

Answer 1

Temporal, frontal, parietal, occipital

Question 2

Pretend you are going clockwise starting at the 9 clock hand. What order are the lobes?

Answer 2

Frontal, parietal, occipital and temporal

Question 3

What does the cerebellum do?

Answer 3

Coordinates motor commands to control movement component of the hindbrain
80% of neurons in human cerebellum

Question 4

What does the brainstem do?

Answer 4

Connects cortex to spinal cord, rest of body
Relay station for sensory/motor info
Maintains basic bodily functions like breathing

Question 5

What does the cerebrum do?

Answer 5

Contains the cortex, as well as subcortical structures like hippocampus and olfactory bulb
Divided into right and left hemispheres

Question 6

What direction is anterior?

Answer 6

Front/nose area

Question 7

What direction is posterior?

Answer 7

back of the head, where occipital lobe is

Question 8

What direction is inferior?

Answer 8

Below

Question 9

What direction is superior?

Answer 9

Above

Question 10

Which direction is medial?

Answer 10

Towards spinal cord

Question 11

Which direction is lateral?

Answer 11

Away from the spinal cord

Question 12

What is the occipital cortex?

Answer 12

It is in charge of visual info

Visual pathway
Retina -> thalamus -> primary visual cortex (V1)

Visual info processed contralaterally
Right visual field is processed by the left hemisphere
Left visual field is processed by the right hemisphere

Question 13

What is retinopy or retinotopic organization?

Answer 13

It is the organization of areas of the occipital cortex that are responsible for visual input.

Some areas of the cortex have more representation than others.

In the occipital cortex, the fovea has the most representation because we pay attention to the center when looking.

Question 14

What is the temporal lobe in charge of?

Answer 14

auditory processing
language and memory

Question 15

What is the auditory pathway?

Answer 15

Ear/cochlea -> brain stem -> Thalamus -> Primary Auditory Cortex (A1)

Auditory info is processed both ipsilaterally and contralaterally

Question 16

What is tonotopy?

Answer 16

How the region in the temporal lobe (primary auditory cortex) is divided (organized)

The bands of the A1 doubles in the intensity of pitch it responds to

Question 17

What is the superior temporal gyrus?

Answer 17

It is in charge of language comprehension in the temporal cortex

STG also active in response to sign languages

Question 18

What is the hippocampus?

Answer 18

It is in the temporal lobe

Important for transferring information from short-term memory to long-term memory, spatial memory, and navigation

Among first to degrade in Alzheimer’s

Has place cells like a topographic representation

Question 19

What is the parietal lobe?

Answer 19

Sensation (touch)
Proprioception
Multi-sensory integration

Question 20

What is the somatotopy or sensory homunculus?

Answer 20

The topographic representation of the primary somatosensory cortex

Parts of the body are represented roughly according to their relative position

Greater sensation in areas of the body with more cortex devoted to that area

Question 21

What is the frontal lobe in charge of?

Answer 21

executive function
decision making
motor control
attention
cognitive control

Question 22

What is the motor homunculus?

Answer 22

The topographic representation of the primary motor cortex

Parts of the body are represented roughly according to their relative position

More cortex devoted to areas of the body with greater motor control

M1 activity disrupted in Parkinson’s Disease

Question 23

How do the primary and association cortex work together?

Answer 23

Primary cortex represents the world fairly faithfully/concretely

Association cortex integrates between multiple modalities, represents world/information more abstractly

Question 24

What is the neuron made up of?

Answer 24

Dendrites
Soma or cell body
Axon, covered in myelin sheath
Axon terminal

Question 25

What is white matter?

Answer 25

Axons connecting different neurons

Question 26

What is grey matter?

Answer 26

Cell bodies or soma

Question 27

What is an action potential?

Answer 27

Electrical signal is conducted down an axon This is how neurons communicate with one another and thus process information All or nothing mechanism

Question 28

What is EPSP?

Answer 28

excitatory post-synaptic potential

Question 29

What is IPSP?

Answer 29

Inhibitory post-synaptic potential

Question 30

What are the different synapses?

Answer 30

electrical or chemical

Question 31

What do chemical synapses release?

Answer 31

They release neurotransmitters that either excite or inhibit

Question 32

What is the math to determine if a neuron is going to fire?

Answer 32

Sum of (pre-synaptic neurons x weights) => threshold Sum of (pre-synaptic neurons x weights) < threshold

Question 33

What is neuronal behavior?

Answer 33

Behaviors of single neurons might be pretty simple, but complex behaviors can arise out of multiple, connected neurons And by changing the strength of the connections between neurons, the neurons can learn