Study Questions for the Final Exam You should definitely emphasize your notes, not the book. Go over the past exams as part of your study plan. Be sure to look at the representative Final Exam. Review your lecture notes with general concepts in mind. I will use the following questions as guidelines when writing the final exam: One theme in this course has been homeostasis. What is homeostasis and why is it so important? By what feedback mechanisms are physiological events regulated? Go through your notes and identify some homeostatic processes (e.g., long term weight control). What is the nature-nurture controversy? What is heritability (h2) and how do h2 measurements address this controversy? Can you think of recent examples involving this controversy? What is the mind-body controversy? How was this controversy resolved? All animals require energy from food in order to survive. What are the basic nutrients in our diet? What is the fate of excess glucose following a meal? How does the body maintain constant glucose levels between meals. How are nutrients stored in the body? Which stored nutrients are utilized for various functions (e.g., muscle contraction, brain function)? Identify the major organelles within a typical neuron and list the function(s) of each. As you review your notes, identify how each of organelle is important in specific tissues involved in cellular secretion, energetics, protein synthesis, cellular catabolism, etc. Some cells are highly specialized and their internal structure reflects their function. Consider how internal organization reflects function? For example, rods in the retina, outer hair cells in the cochlea, the motor nerve, and muscle cells. Energy exchange in cells is common and ATP is the currency of energy exchange. What are the cellular sources of ATP and how are energy reserves stored? Which nutrient is the richest energy source for ATP production? Dysfunction in the nervous system (e.g., due to a genetic mutation, a drug treatment, or a localized lesion) can often used to understand how a neural process works. As you review your notes, note where a dysfunction has been useful for understanding a process. Also, think about how you might use such manipulations in designing your own experiments. Consider what controls are needed for such manipulations? Compare and contrast the general properties of graded potentials and action potentials. What is an EPSP and an IPSP? Where is each important in general? How is each important in learning? Describe the structure and function of the plasma membrane. What mechanisms make it selectively permeable? How is selective ion permeability across a membrane important in nerve and muscle function (e.g., action potential, neurotransmitter release, muscle contraction, graded potentials)? Neurohormones, hormones, and neurotransmitters act via a receptor at the target cell. What is the nature of the interaction between the ligand and its receptor? Review the different types of signal tranduction mechanisms (roles of Ca++, cAMP) which exist? Cite examples of where these transduction mechanisms are important. Drugs have been used to understand brain-behavior relationships. What are agonists and antagonists? What is competitive and noncompetitive binding? By what general mechanisms do these drugs act on the neuron (see Figure 4.6). Familarize yourself with the action of some of the important drugs used in research (e.g., anisomysin, curare, atropine, isoproternol, propanolol, and bicuculline). Drug actions are listed in Chapter 4, but don't memorize these tables. Various techniques have been used to understand brain function and its role in behavior. What can the following techniques tell us: ablation studies, neuronal stimulation and recording, microdialysis, immunocytochemistry, in situ hybridization, neuronal tracing techniques (HRP, PHA-l), transgenic mice (knockouts), MRI, PET, 2-deoxyglucose, and c-fos? Can you give an specific example where each of these techniques has been used? How might you employ these techniques in an experiment? Use the following series of statements on feeding behavior in mice to identify which technique (or techniques in some cases) to use. You decide to determine if the paraventricular nucleus (PVN) in the hypothalamus is involved in feeding behavior. Which technique might you use to get a quick, although maybe not definitive, answer to that question? Is a control needed for this approach? You have now determined that the PVN is definitely involved. Now you want to know if this brain area is more active (neuronally or metabolically) during a feeding bout. Which technique would you use? You have now determined that the PVN is more active during feeding. You know that Neuropeptide Y (NPY) stimulates feeding, and now you want to examine if NPY is present within the PVN. Which technique would you use? You have determined that NPY is present in the PVN so now you want to determine if specific NPY-containing neurons are activated during a feeding bout. Which technique would you use? You have determined that some NPY neurons are activated by feeding. Now you want to know the origin of those neurons innervating the PVN. Which technique would you use? Finally, you decide to eliminate NPY action to see if the absence of this neuropeptide has an effect on feeding behavior. Which technique would you use? List the characteristics of a biological clock? What types of biological clocks have been identified? How are biological clocks involved in control of animal behavior? --in human behavior? Give examples of both. You have become interested in the Food Entrainable Oscillator (FEO), an output of feeding behavior in rats that has clock-like properties. This clock works normally even when the Suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) is lesioned. You decide to investigate if the FEO resides in the Arcuate nucleus (Arc). First, why consider the Arc? Second, outline three different experimental approaches you could use to establish and confirm that the Arc is the site of the FEO. Briefly explain what each approach would tell you. What controls would you need for each? Regulation of physiological systems is achieved by either 1) nervous, 2) endocrine, and/or 3) neuroendocrine events. In general, how are these regulatory systems alike? Different? Give an example of how each regulates a physiological process or behavior. The autonomic nervous system is responsible for regulating physiological processes. How is the autonomic nervous antomically and functionally organized? Give some examples of how it is involved in regulation. The body constantly monitors its external environment. By what sensory structures do we monitor the external world (light, sound, touch/pressure, smell, pain)? List the sensory structures them and briefly explain how each operates. How and where is this sensory information integrated in the brain (e.g., what pathways are involved)? Are there any general principles of integration and coding that sensory systems use? The body also constantly monitors its internal environment (e.g., blood pressure, blood glucose, blood osmolarity, food intake, etc.). How and where is this sensory information integrated? The brain and spinal cord control our behavior. What general parts of the central nervous system are involved in a simple motor events, such as raising your arm or walking? In general, what brain regions contribute to simple motor behaviors? Some behaviors are simple reflexes which do not directly involve the brain. Can you name a couple of these reflexes and how they work? Reflexes are found in what parts of the central nervous system (CNS)? What is the role of higher CNS centers on some of these reflexes (e.g., central pattern generations)? Give an example. The physiology of the female reproductive system is well-timed and well-coordinated to ensure fertilization and successive development of the fetus. List some of these timed events and consider how they are regulated by the nervous, endocrine, and/or neuroendocrine systems. Although the male system is simplier, some controlling mechanisms are similar to the female. What are these similarities? How do sex hormones influence animal behavior? Give some examples. An engram is defined a hypothetical physical impression made in neural tissue by a stimulus. Essentially, that each of our memories has a specific storage location in the brain. The idea of an engram has faded in recent years. Given your understanding of how memories are processed in the brain, can you explain why this idea is no longer widely held? You should be aware of a number of important cellular mechanisms. For example, the nerve action potential, post-synaptic potential, skeletal muscle contraction, signal tranduction for sensory systems (light, sound, chemicals in the environment) and peptide/steroid hormone action, neurotransmitter secretion and action, molecular clock, and long term potentiation (LTP) and depression (LTD). The brain is organized by function. Make a list of some of the functions for the following brain structures: basal ganglia (putamen, caudate, and globus pallidus), nucleus accumbens, various nuclei of the amygdala, hippocampus, hypothalamus (arcuate, suprachiasmatic, paraventricular, supraoptic, preoptic area, ventromedial, lateral), thalamus, various lobes of the cerebrum, prefrontal cortex, midbrain structures (periaqueductal gray, ventral tegmental area, superior and inferior colliculi and substantia nigra), cerebellum, various nuclei in the medulla, and the reticular activating system. Important: You should also know where in the brain these structures are found. (There is a figure on the representative Final Exam which will be helpful) What is the limbic system and how is it involved in behavior? Give some examples. Define the following terms/concepts and explain how they are important in understanding behavior or neural systems. Central pattern generator Sex determination Pheromones Vomeronasal organ Territoriality Habituation Sensitization Lipostat Sensory maps (e.g., retinotopic map) Lateral inhibition Extinction (of a learned response) Phasic and tonic firing Cell theory Exocytosis and endocytosis Revised: September 15, 2004