Vision
Audition
Olf/Gust
Somatosenses
Learning
100
Describe the two types of visual receptor cells and what they are responsible for.
- rods: not much detail; work in low light
- cones: color; detail; need lots of light (trichromat- 3 wavelengths)
100
T/F: a 100 Hz sound is quieter than a 200 Hz sound
False, Hz is a measure of frequency not volume, there was not enough information provided about these sound waves to determine which one was louder.
100
Do humans have pheromones? What structure would we need in order to process pheromones?
Unlikely, we would need a VNO and it doesn't seem like we have one
100
What is the difference between the hapsis pathway and the nociception pathway? Explain how a lesion might affect a person's perceptive experience.
Hapsis crosses over at the medulla in the brainstem (posterior spinothalamic tract). Nociception crosses over at the spinal chord (anterior spinal thalamic tract). This means that lesion to the anterior spinothalamic tract at the spinal chord would allow haptic sensation to reach the brain, but nociception would be halted before the brain.
100
Explain how phobias can be treated using Pavlovian concepts
Phobias can be treated by breaking the association between the CS and the UCS via exposure
200
What neural pathway is responsible for the conscious vision and what stop in the brain do we reach the consciousness stage of vision?
Geniculostriate pathway, vision becomes conscious in the V1 (occipital lobe)
200
Why do high frequency sounds go first during hearing loss?
High-frequency sounds are transduced at the base of the cochlea and all frequencies go through there so through normal wear and tear they are the first to die off.
200
Why do we have strong emotional reactions to smells?
The olfactory system leads directly into our limbic system which is responsible for our emotional reactions
200
Using a two-point test, Julie found that some areas of her body were more sensitive than others. Explain why she could distinguish between two points easier on some areas of her body than others.
- Receptive fields - each receptor has a certain area on the body from which it receives information
- areas with fewer neurons and larger receptive fields will be less sensitive - more neurons and smaller receptive fields are more sensitive
- cannot distinguish between two points of contact on the skin unless each point is in a different cell's receptive field
200
Explain how "nose blindness" relates to non-associative learning
"nose blindness" is a phenomenon of habituation (lessened response to prolonged stimulus)
300
You are fully colorblind (no functioning cones) but can still see bits of blue. How is this possible?
Retinohypothalamic tract. 1-3% of RGCs act as PRGCs that are hypersensitive to blue light
300
Sam was born with 90% of their hair cells dysfunctional. Would you recommend a hearing aid or a cochlear implant? Why?
Cochlear implant. Their functional hair cells will continue to die off at a normal pace, and with so few hair cells to begin with a hearing aid (which is basically just a microphone for the world) wouldn't do much to help.
300
Describe the difference between taste vs. flavor and that factors that go into both.
Taste: raw information of tastants binding to TRCs with no perception, just basic transduction. Flavor is more our perception of the food we eat, ie: your favorite food is more of a holistic experience of how the food smells, how it looks, the texture feel, etc.
300
Explain why the homunculus looks the way it does. What is it demonstrating?
The homunculus is made to show the amount of somatosensory neurons in different parts of the body, the bigger the body part on the homunculus the smaller the receptive field, and the more space in the primary somatosensory cortex
300
Explain the phrase "practice makes perfect" according to LTP concepts
Practice makes perfect implies that doing something or relearning information repeatedly strengthens learning. This can be due in part to the fact that if LTP happens by a Mg plug getting enough stimulation to be expelled from an NMDA rec., Ca and Na influx increases. The synapse then gets strengthened and activity happen in that given neural pathway more easily each time.
400
Jane is shown several drawings of common household items but cannot identify what they are. If you were her doctor, where would you expect to find damage in her brain?
The ventral stream to the temporal lobe which is responsible for information about what a person is seeing (AKA the "what" pathway)
400
Explain the difference between 2 types of hearing loss.
Central hearing loss- problem with the cochlea and on into the CNS
Peripheral hearing loss- damage to anything before the cochlea (ie: eardrum)
400
What is this horse doing and why is it doing it?
Phlemen/ Flemen response, it's doing it to help get the pheromones to the VNO for better processing of the pheremones
400
Explain the concept of phantom limb pain.
Phantom limb pain is a phenomenon of feeling pain in a limb that has been amputated, this happens when your SS cortex is sending pain messages despite no sensory neurons existing in that area/ sending pain signals
400
You were stung by a bee as a child and now you are scared of bees. Label the UCS, UCR, CS, and CR
UCS: Bee sting
UCR: fear
CS: Bees
CR: fear
500
You have damage to your V1 cortex and are considered medically blind although your eyes work fine, you are walking through your house and move to avoid crashing into a box on your floor. If you are blind, how did you know to move? Explain in detail.
This phenomenon is called "blindsight" this is a result of the tectopulvinar pathway, the tectopulvinar pathway is constantly active as is your geniculostriate. Since the tectopulvinar pathway doesn't go to the V1, you would still have the functions of it in tact, including the subconscious function that pulls your eyes towards objects nearby. This is why you were able to avoid the box.
500
Where and how does transduction happen in the auditory system?
Transduction in the auditory system occurs at the hair cells in the cochlea when the basilar membrane presses up against the tectorial membrane. The hair cells on the basilar membrane bend in response to this, which then opens K+ channels to release NTs onto the auditory nerve.
500
How are we able to tell the difference between different smells? (ie: the smell of grass vs the smell of a cookie)
-axons combine into glomeruli which consolidate the sensory information from the ORCs in the olfactory epithelium
-patterns of glomeruli stimulation create distinct and specific flavors/smells
500
You get kicked in the shin and you instinctually rub the area kicked to make it feel better, why does that actually kind of work?
The pain gate theory, a haptic pathway using interneurons can inhibit the nociception pathway and kind of "over-ruling" it
500
2 rats are being taught to press a lever and open a door. 1 rat learns and the other does not. What is the nueral activity of the rat that did not learn?
The rat's mg plug was not expelled (AP didn't happen so the synaptic area didn't grow, etc.), meaning it did not learn how to press the lever