Neural Not-Works
This part of the basal ganglia degenerates in parkison's disease.
What is the substansia nigra (pars compacta)?
This sleep stage is associated with fast, desynchronized brain waves and vivid dreaming.
What is REM (rapid eye movement) sleep?
The activity of this is responsible for monogamy in prairie voles.
What is vasopressin?
Opioids work primarily on this neurotransmitter system.
What is the endorphin system?
In Alzheimer's disease, these abnormal protein structures form inside dying neurons.
What are neurofibrillary tangles made of tau protein?
This EEG rhythm (8-12 Hz) appears during relaxed wakefulness and disappears during the transition into N1.
What are alpha waves?
Vasopressin receptors are expressed in this basal ganglia sub-region, which is involved in regulating motivation.
What is the ventral pallidum?
Over time, chronic alcohol use causes a compensatory up-regulation of these receptors, causing neurons to become hyperexcitable.
What are NMDA receptors?
Medium spiny neurons release this neurotransmitter to inhibit the GPi and GPe.
What is GABA?
What are sleep spindles and K-complexes?
Ventral pallidum integrates dopamine inputs from the from this midbrain area with modulatory inputs like vasopressin from thalamic (PVT) sources.
What is the VTA?
Chronic alcohol use causes desensitization of this receptor type
What are GABA-A receptors?
In Parkinson's disease, weakened output of the direct pathway leads to less inhibition of this structure, which normally suppresses the thalamus.
What is the internal globus pallidus? (GPi)?
This group of - the posterior hypothalamus, intralaminar nuclei of the thalamus, and nucleus basalis - maintain the desychronized EEG pattern characteristic of wakefulness, and all together, have this nickname.
What is the executive network?
Female prairie voles with higher oxytocin receptor density in this region display higher levels of maternal behaviors.
What is the nucleus accumbens?
These molecules act as retrograde messengers to inhibit neurotransmitter release by acting on inhibitory presynaptic CB1 receptors.
What are endocannabinoids?
This gene on chromosome 21 codes for the precursor of beta amyloid, explaining why Down Syndrome increases AD risk.
What is the APP or APOE gene? (amyloid precursor protein).
NREM parasomnias (sleep disturbances) occur because the brain is caught between these two physiological states (be specific).
What are slow-wave sleep and wakefulness?
The nucleus accumbens and a key node in this specific dopamine pathway.
What is the mesolimbic pathway?
This type of endocannabinoid receptor is widespread in the immune system.
What are CB2 receptors?