Physiology Psychology
1. The mind-body problem is a fundamental philosophical issue at the base of all cognitive/behavioral neuroscience research. Why? Discuss the mind-body problem and give an example of how it relates to an issue in cognitive/behavioral neuroscience. Explain.
2. Explain how an action potential occurs. Start with Glutamate release from the presynaptic neuron and end with neurotransmitter release from the postsynaptic neuron.
3. How does a neuron inhibit another neuron? Explain. {~1 paragraph}
4. Design a drug that would increase Dopamine (DA) and/or Norepinephrine (NE) levels and explain its mechanism of action (explain how it works to increase DA and/or NE). What kind of disorder could this drug be used to treat? What would be some side-effects you might expect from taking such a drug? Would there be any risks expected from long-term treatment? Explain.
5. Alzheimer’s dementia is a neurodegenerative disorder that results in severe cognitive impairment. Researchers hypothesize that Alzheimer’s is due to low Acetylcholine activity in the cerebral cortex. How could a researcher test this hypothesis? Justify your answer.
6. What is neural plasticity? Give an example and explain. [3-4 sentences]
7. Dr. Butthurt, a prominent pain researcher, has recently discovered that a Chinese form of meditation called Tai Chi can be a very effective pain-relief method. In Dr. Butthurt’s studies, he found that people in pain experience profound pain relief after participating in just 30 minutes of Tai Chi meditation. Now, Dr. Butthurt wants to determine the neural mechanism by which Tai Chi works to relieve pain. The first hypothesis he wants to test is that Tai Chi works because it stimulates endorphin activity in the brain. How can Dr. Butt-hurt test this hypothesis? Explain. [~1 paragraph]
8. A dominant view in neuroscience is that the human brain is “modular”. For example, many have claimed that the Fusiform Face Area (FFA) is a specialized, domain-specific module for recognizing faces. Discuss the issue, giving evidence for and against the claim that the FFA is domain-specific for face-processing. (1-2 paragraphs)
9. The Wernicke-Geschwind model of language was the dogma in neuroscience and psychology for many years. According to the W-G model, Broca’s Area and Wernicke’s area are the two main language modules in the brain. What does the model argue is the function of Broca’s area? Explain one piece of evidence to support it. What does the model argue is the function of Wernicke’s area? Explain one piece of evidence to support it. Why has the current theory of language moved away from the W-G Model? Explain.
10. If a person has the genes associated with a particular psychopathological disorder (e.g., depression, schizophrenia, bipolar, etc), will that person definitely develop the disorder? Why or why not? Explain. Use an example to help you explain. (few sentences to a short paragraph)
11. Why is it the case that there are some very high-pitched ringtones that are typically only audible to people under 18 years old? Why can’t (most) adults hear these high-pitched tones? Explain. (few sentences)
12. How does Miraculin act on the nervous system to change our perception of taste? Explain.
13. Discuss the Triune Brain model. Explain what happens to the functioning of the Triune Brain model when an individual is intoxicated by alcohol, and link that to drunk behavior.
14. Some patients develop disorders in which they believe that one of their limbs is not, in fact, their own limb. What could be happening in the nervous system that would lead to this peculiar phenomenon? Justify your answer and explain. (I am looking for you to come up with a reasonable hypothesis as to what could be causing it that you can sensibly justify and explain)
15a. What is schizophrenia? Describe 2 positive and 2 negative symptoms. Explain one way that the brains of schizophrenic patients are different from healthy controls, and link the brain abnormality to one of the symptoms of schizophrenia that you just described. 15b. What is the Dopamine (DA) Hypothesis for schizophrenia? Explain two pieces of evidence to support the DA Hypothesis. Explain one piece of evidence against the DA hypothesis. [~1 short paragraph] 15c. What is the Glutamate Hypothesis for schizophrenia? Explain two pieces of evidence to support the Glutamate hypothesis. Explain one piece of evidence against the Glutamate hypothesis. [~ 1 short paragraph] 15d. Schizophrenia is estimated to be about 80% heritable, but there are other factors that researchers have found to influence the development (or flare) of schizophrenia. Give an example of one of these other factors, and briefly explain the evidence for it. [2-3 sentences]
16. Major depression (unipolar) is a psychiatric disorder affecting over 15% of the U.S. population. Explain two of the dominant hypotheses about the biological factors in depression, discussing the evidence for and against those hypotheses. What is the most effective treatment for long-term relief from depression? Why? Explain. (~2 paragraphs)
17. Explain how the amygdala and brain stem are involved in the development of anxiety disorders such as PTSD, phobias or panic disorder.
18. Explain the basic function of the mesolimbic DA reward pathway. Discuss how drug use alters the pathway and contributes to the development of compulsive disorders like drug addictions/alcoholism.
19. If a stroke patient has damage to their right posterior parietal lobe, along the dorsal stream of visual processing, what syndrome would the patient have? Describe the major symptoms and explain what the person’s behavior would be like. What did we learn about the function of the parietal lobe from studying these patients? Explain.
20. If a stroke patient has damage to their temporal lobe, along the ventral stream of visual processing, what type of disorder would the patient have? Describe the major symptoms and explain what the person’s behavior would be like. What did we learn about the function of the temporal lobe from studying these patients? Explain.
21. What is blindsight? Explain how studying patients with blindsight informed our understanding of the visual system.
22. What are implicit and explicit memories? Do implicit and explicit memories represent independent neural systems for memory? Why or why not? Justify your answer with evidence.
23. What is retrograde amnesia? What did we learn about long-term memory from studying patients with retrograde amnesia (e.g., patient KC)? Explain.
24. What is our current understanding of how the Medial Temporal Lobe (MTL) stores and retrieves explicit memories? Discuss how the function of the MTL can explain cases of anterograde amnesia like HM’s.
25. Imagine that a doctor developed a drug called Memoryhole that is a Glutamate-NMDA receptor antagonist in the hippocampus. What effect would Memoryhole have on the process of Long-Term Potentiation (LTP), and, in turn, memory? Explain.
26. Do we have evidence for a biological basis for sexual preference? Discuss with respect to the Sexually Dimorphic Nucleus of the hypothalamus.
27. Helen Fisher’s research delineated 3 stages of love in the brain. Explain, with an emphasis on the brain-behavior relationships.
28. Parkinson’s disease is a neurodegenerative disorder that results in severe motor impairments. What causes Parkinson’s? Explain the major treatment for the disorder and the extent to which the treatment is successful. Are there any negative side-effects of that treatment? Explain.
29. What are mirror neurons? Explain two pieces of evidence for the hypothesis that mirror neurons are the neural substrate for empathy and theory of mind in humans. Do we have evidence linking mirror neurons to autism? Explain.
30. What was the most interesting thing you learned in class this semester? Why did you find it interesting? Explain.
31. What is a circadian rhythm? Explain how light acts as a zeitgeber to control our sleep/wake circadian rhythms. If someone had trouble falling asleep (insomnia), what advice would you give them? Justify your answer.
32. Seasonal Affective Disorder is a type of depression that occurs when depression symptoms consistently flare in the winter season and abate in the summer season. One successful treatment for this type of depression is “light therapy” in which the patient sits in front of a sunlight-emitting device for a certain number of hours a week. How could this type of depression and its treatment be explained by what we know about the neural basis of arousal and circadian rhythms?
