Cortex & Thalamus
This is the name of the collective gryi & sulci that cover the exterior of the brain.
What is the cortex?
This is the subcortical region known to be crucial for fear processing.
What is the amygdala?
The basal ganglia can be thought of as a mediator of communication coming for this region and going to this region.
What the the cortex & the thalamus, respectively?
This is the emotion many of you likely feel in respect to this exam.
What is stress? (Don't worry, you'll do great!)
I can't think of anything for the last two questions.
Good luck on your exam!
This is the number of layers in (most of) the cortex.
What is 6?
This is the subcortical region known to be crucial for creating a spatial map.
What is the hippocampus?
These are the three functional loops associated with the basal ganglia.
What are the limbic, executive, and motor loops?
This is a description of a typical fear-potentiated startle (FPS) response.
What is an experiment in which we begin with a pair of neutral stimuli (UC1 and UC2, e.g. light & sound), associate UC1 with fear (e.g. by foot shock during UC1 presentation) and examine the difference in startle response between UC2 alone vs. UC1 + UC2.
It's been really great teaching this class. I've learned a lot and I hope you all have as well!
Good luck in all your future endeavors, and on the rest of your exams as well! (Remember that your value extends way past your academic success!)
This loop is thought to be particularly important for consciousness
What is the cortico-thalamo-cortical loop?
Damage to the amygdala is associated with which behavioral change?
What is lack of fear processing/ lack of Fear Potentiated Startle (FPS)?
What are memory consolidation (during sleep), forming a spatial map, and communicating with sensory cortex to establish long term memories?
This is what Sapolsky argues is the most significant stressor that baboons face, as evidenced by basal cortisol levels.
What is social stress?
This is a description of epigenetics.
What is the study of the chemicals that surround our DNA and "turn on or off" certain genes, dependent on environmental factors?
What are layers 1 & 4?
These are the "voluntary movement" and "motivation & attention" pathways in the brain.
What is the SN -> Dorsal Striatum pathway? What is the VTA -> Ventral Striatum (NAcc) pathway?
These are the principal afferents and efferents of the hippocampus.
Afferents: Septum (ACh) and sensory cortex
Efferents: Thalamus & Basal Nucleus (ACh to Cortex)
Jay Weiss argues that these two factors are significant mediators of physiological responses to stress?
What are control and predictability?
This is a description of the Michael Meany experiment.
What is an experiment showing that rodents reared with low-licking (rather than high-licking) mothers have a significant increase in risk for, e.g., anxiety, diabetes, heart disease, obesity, etc.
This is the layer of cortex that sends information to the thalamus
What is layer 6?
These are the principal afferents and efferents of the amygdala.
Afferents: Thalamus (Glu), Locus Coeruleus (NE), Raphe Nuclei (5HT)
Efferents: Prefrontal cortex, Hypothalamus, Brainstem
This is the full loop detailing the interactions between cortex, basal ganglia, and thalamus.
What is the cortico-striato-pallido-thalamo-cortical loop?
This is a description of how chronic or excessive stress can permanently alter emotional processing.
What is the process by which excessive cortisol kills the negative-feedback-loop controlling neurons in the hippocampus?
This is a description of the Dias & Ressler experiment.
What is an FPS experiment showing that associating an odor with fear increases generation of receptors for that odor, not only for the animal with the association (F0), but also for the offspring & grand-offspring (F1 & F2) of that animal? (Also, F1 & F2 exhibit FPS, even without any foot shock!)