đ§ Category 1: Advanced Brain Function & Structure
Which lobe of the brain is crucial for spatial awareness and processes sensory input?
The parietal lobe â it processes sensory input and supports spatial reasoning.
Question: What does the acronym CTE stand for, and what is its primary cause? Explain.
Answer: Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy, caused by repeated head trauma/concussions. CTE occurs when there is a build up of the tau protein in the brain.
Define neuroplasticity and explain its significance in brain development and recovery.
Neuroplasticity is the brainâs ability to change and adapt by forming new neural connections. It allows the brain to recover from injury and to learn new skills.
Who am I? This Canadian singer's 2023 hit "Greedy" topped charts in Australia and became her first top 10 on the Billboard Hot 100.
Tate Mcrae
Damage to which specific area in the left frontal lobe can result in difficulties with speech production?
Brocaâs area
Question: List two early cognitive symptoms commonly associated with CTE.
Memory loss
Headaches
What are 'sprouting' and 'rerouting' in the context of neuroplasticity, and how do they contribute to neural recovery?
Sprouting: New axon/dendrite growth to form new synapses
Rerouting: New connections are made to bypass damaged areas, restoring function
Who am I?
I am a billionaire who owns a very sucessful car company and another company who has taken people up into space. In 2022, I brought Twitter and renamed it too "X"
Elon Musk
Explain how the concept of contralateral organization applies to motor control in the human body.
Each hemisphere controls voluntary movements on the opposite side of the body. For example, the left motor cortex controls the right arm and leg, and vice versa.
Why canât doctors be completely sure if someone has CTE while theyâre still alive?
Answer:
CTE can only be confirmed by examining brain tissue under a microscope.
This can only happen after death, which is why itâs hard to diagnose while someone is alive.
Scenario: A child undergoes a left hemispherectomy (Half of their brain removed) due to severe epilepsy. Explain how neuroplasticity might enable the child to regain language abilities.
The right hemisphere can reorganise to take over language functions, especially if surgery occurs during early development when plasticity is high.
A patient exhibits difficulty in recognizing faces but has no trouble with object recognition. Which hemisphere and lobe are most likely affected?
The right hemisphere, specifically the right temporal lobe (including the fusiform face area).
A person sees an image in their left visual field. They are unable to say what it is, but they can draw it with their left hand.
Using your knowledge of hemispheric specialisation and contralateral organisation, explain why this happens.
Information from the left visual field is processed by the right hemisphere of the brain.
The right hemisphere is not specialised for language, so the person canât name the object.
The left hand is controlled by the right hemisphere, which allows them to draw the image.
Because the left hemisphere (which handles speech) doesnât get the image, the person canât say what it is.
This shows hemispheric specialisation (language = left side) and contralateral organisation (each hemisphere controls the opposite side of the body).