The Brain
The three general regions of the brain; list from least complex to most complex.
What is the brain stem, the cerebellum, and the cerebrum?
Name the three classifications of neurons.
What are unipolar, bipolar, and multipolar?
Name all the cranial nerves associated with the eye (number or name is fine).
What is cranial nerve II (optic), cranial nerve III (oculomotor), cranial nerve IV (trochlear), and cranial nerve VI (abducens)?
Name the cranial nerve associated with the ears.
What is cranial nerve VIII (vestibulcochlear)?
Name the four tastes.
What are bitter, sweet, sour, and umami?
Region of the brain that many special sense pathways pass through at some point.
What is the thalamus?
The fatty layer of cells that cover a neuron's axon.
What is the myelin sheath?
Name the three tunics of the eye; identify the one that processes light.
What are the fibrous tunic (sclera), vascular tunic (choroid), and sensory tunic (retina) (retina processes light)?
Name the spiral-shaped organ located inside the innermost ear.
What is the cochlea?
This ion sometimes triggers a salty taste when entering Type I support cells in taste buds.
What is Na+?
This important component of the brain connects the two hemispheres: state its name and its importance in brain function.
What is the corpus callosum; what is allowing the two brain hemispheres to cross over (aids in writing, reading, vision, language processing, hand-eye coordination, etc. Accept any answer close to these)
Name the three layers of a nerve.
What is the epineurium, the perineurium, and the endoneurium?
Name the two humors of the eye; identify their locations in the eye (relative to other eye structures).
What is the aqueous humor (by the lens and the cornea) and the vitreous humor (main chamber of the eye, surrounded by retina)?
This is the special fluid located inside the vestibular canals (hint: it is saltier than blood or other interstitial fluids).
What is endolymph?
This is the only special sense that doesn't pass through the thalamus.
What is olfaction/sense of smell?
Name the three parts of the brainstem and their functions.
What is the midbrain (visual and audio processing as well as ocular motion), pons (sleep cycle), and medulla oblongata (vital homeostatic functions like heart rate, vomiting, crying, and innate "drives" like hunger and thirst)?
Identify the difference between a ramus and a root.
Rami have mixed (afferent and efferent) signals, whereas roots have only one type of signal (either afferent or efferent, but never both!)
Name the part of the eye that is affected by the development of cataracts. (Bonus points if you can tell me WHY they develop)
What is the lens?
Name the three bones/ossicles of the ear; state what their purpose is.
What are the malleus, incus, and stapes (they transmit vibrations from the outer ear to the inner ear)?
This type of channel protein is located on taste buds for sweet, umami, and bitter sensations.
What is a GCPR (G protein-coupled receptor)?
Name the lobes of the brain; for bonus points, state a potential symptom of damage to each lobe.
What are the frontal, parietal, occipital, and temporal lobes?
*For bonus points: what is hearing loss, blindness, personality change, and numbness?*
Name the region of the spinal cord that a sensory impulse would travel to.
What is the dorsal root?
Identify the region of the optic nerves in which the left and right optic nerves cross over.
What is the optic chiasma?
Name the mineral structures attached to some membrane surfaces that are closely associated with hair cells.
What are otoliths?
Compare the olfactory capabilities of humans to other animals; relatively, how good is our sense of smell?
Very poor