Behavioral Neuroscience - Quiz 1

Behavioral Intervention

An approach to finding relations between body variables and behavioral variables that involves intervening in the behavior of an organism and looking for resultant changes in body structure or function

Behavioral Neuroscience

Also called biological psychology. The study of the neural bases of behavior and mental processes

Consciousness

The state of awareness of one's own existence and experience

Conserved

In the context of evolution, referring to a trait that is passed on from a common ancestor to two or more descendant species

Correlation

The covariation of two measures

Dependent Variable

The factor that an experimenter measures to monitor a change in response to manipulation of an independent variable.

Dualism

In neuroscience, the notion promoted by Rene Descartes that the mind is subject only to spiritual interactions while the body is subject only to material interactions

Independent Variable

The factor that is manipulated by an experimenter.

Levels of Analysis

The scope of experimental approaches. A scientist may try to understand behavior by monitoring molecules, nerve cells, brain regions, or social environments, or some combination of these levels of analysis.

Neuron

Also called nerve cell. The basic unit of the nervous system, each composed of a cell body, receptive extension(s) (dendrites), and a transmitting extension (axon).

Neuroplasticity

Also called neural plasticity. The ability of the nervous system to change in response to experience or the environment.

Neuroscience

The study of the nervous system and its functions

Ontogeny

The process by which an individual changes in the course of its lifetime - that is, grows up and grows old.

Phrenology

The outmoded belief that bumps on the skull reflect enlargements of brain regions responsible for certain behavioral faculties.

Reductionism

The scientific strategy of breaking a system down into increasingly smaller parts in order to understand it

Somatic Intervention

An approach to finding relations between body variables and behavioral variables that involves manipulating body structure or function and looking for resultant changes in behavior

Neurobiology

Same as neuroscience, although more traditional in biology

Neuropsychology

Similar to biopsychology, but involves the study of brain lesions and damage to make inferences about function, may use cognitive testing and brain imaging

Neurology

A branch of medicine that studies the brain and the nervous system, especially diseases therein

Psychophysics

Not neuroscience at all; it quantitatively investigates the relationship between physical stimuli and the sensations and perceptions that they affect

Emergentism

A different idea that a property of a system is more than the sum of properties of its individual parts; it can't be understood by combining them together

Biological Psychology

Same thing as behavioral neuroscience, although more passe

Mind-Body Problem

Concerned with reconciling the relationship between mental processes and bodily states/processes

Monism

The belief that the universe is only comprised of one type of substance

Materialism

Form of monism: Everything that exists is physical in nature

Mentalism

Form of monism: Physical and psychological phenomena are mentally constructed, and are therefore only explicable in terms of the mind

Identity position

Form of monism: Mental processes and brain processes are the same, but described in different terms

Localization theory

Different parts of the brain serve different functions. Structures that look the same/different should have the same/different functions

Holism

Brain function is not localized; instead, function is distributed more homogeneously throughout

BCE - Aristotle, Hippocrates, Plato

Believed heart, and/or liver was responsible. Not much role for brain (Aristotle thought cooling unit for heart).

200 AD - Galen

Roman surgeon - Noted brain responsible, but ventricles responsible not gray matter

1500s - Da Vinci and Vesalius

Believed ventricles were responsible for localization. Ex: Middle ventricle responsible for cognition, Fourth ventricle responsible for memory

Thomas Willis

Oxford Physician. Author of cerebri anatome in 1664. Proposed that cerebral hemispheres controlled memory and the well. Brain material implicated in sensation and movement. Cerebellum and brain stem involved in vital and involuntary systems.

Descartes

Created the notion that the brain is a reflexive machine

Legallois

In 1806 - Isolated the respiratory center to just one small part of the brain stem

Bell-Magendie Law

In 1822 - Dorsal spinal nerves' roots contain only sensory fibers and ventral spinal roots contain only motor fibers. They were previously thought to be mixed.

Franz Joseph Gall

In 1809 - Phrenology - The idea that skull features were indicative of brain development, such that specific faculties could be detected by surface features

Paul Broca

In 1861 - First to provide definitive proof of cortical localization not based on skull surface features. Lesion on patient's brain in specific region correlated with inability to form speech

Neuron Doctrine

Most scientists believed that branches of nerve cells formed a continuous net - Sometimes called the nerve net theory, this view was used against the idea of cortical localization. Theodore Schwann proposed neuron doctrine in 1839 that the entire body, including the nervous system, is made up of individual cells.

Cytoarchitecture

Cell organization

Connectionism

Suggests that mental phenomena and behavior can be described in terms of interconnected brain regions subserving different subfunctions

Brain Science Revolutions

Golgi developed silver staining procedure that allowed for visualizing occasional, individual cells. Santiago Ramon y Cajal began to work with silver stains in 1887, and made technical improvements to the method, in which Cajal amassed an extraordinary archive of anatomical data of neuron structure.

Glial Cells

Also called glia or neuroglia. Nonneuronal brain cells that provide structural, nutritional, and other types of support to the brain.

Synapses

The tiny gap between neurons where information is passed from one to the other.

Soma

Also called the cell body. The region of a neuron that is defined by the presence of the cell nucleus.

Golgi Apparatus

An organelle in eukaryotic cells, that packages cellular materials into vesicles for transport.

Input Zone

The part of the neuron that receives information from other neurons or from specialized sensory structures. Usually corresponds to the cell's dendrites.

Dendrites

One of the extensions of the cell body through which synaptic inputs are received.

Integration Zone

The part of the neuron that initiates nerve electrical activity. Usually corresponds to the neuron's axon hillock

Conduction Zone

The part of the neuron over which the nerve's electrical signal may be actively propagated. Usually corresponds to the cell's axon.

Axon Collaterals

A branch of an axon from a single neuron

Output Zone

The part of a neuron, usually corresponding to the axon terminals at which the cell sends information to another cell.

Axon terminals

Also called the synaptic bouton. The end of an axon or axon collateral, which forms a synapse on a neuron or other target cell.

Motor neurons

Also called motoneurons. A nerve cell in the brain or spinal cord that transmits motor messages, stimulating a muscle or gland.

Sensory Neuron

A neuron that is directly affected by changes in the environment, such as light, odor, or touch.

Interneurons

A neuron that is neither a sensory neuron nor a motor neuron; it receives input from a neuron and sends an output to other neurons.

Multipolar Neurons

A nerve cell that has many dendrites and a single axon. Most common type of neuron.

Bipolar neuron

A nerve cell that has a single dendrite at one end and a single axon at the other end. Common in sensory systems, such as vision

Unipolar Neurons

Also called monopolar neuron. A nerve cell with a single branch that leves the cell body and then extends in two directions' one end is the receptive pole, the other end the output zone. Such cells transmit touch information from the body into the spinal cord.

Arborization

The elaborate branching of the dendrites of some neurons.

Presynaptic

Refers to the region of a synapse that releases neurotransmitter.

Postsynaptic

Refers to the region of a synapse that receives and responds to neurotransmitter.

Presynaptic Membrane

The specialized membrane of the axon terminal of the neuron that transmits information by releasing neurotransmitter.

Synaptic Cleft

The small (20-40 nm) space between the presynaptic and postsynaptic membranes.

Postsynaptic Membrane

The specialized membrane on the surface of the cell that receives information by responding to neurotransmitter from a presynaptic neuron.

Synaptic vesicles

A small, spherical structure that contains molecules of neurotransmitter.

Neurotransmitter

Also called synaptic transmitter, chemical transmitter, or simply transmitter. The chemical released from the presynaptic axon terminal that serves as the basis of communication between neurons.

Neurotransmitter receptors

Specialized protein molecules that stud the postsynaptic membrane, where they capture and react to molecules of the neurotransmitter.

Axon hillock

A cone-shaped area from which the axon originates out of the cell body; functionally, the integration zone of the neuron.

Innervate

To provide neural input.

Histology

The scientific study of the composition of tissues.

Nissl Stains

A cell stain that reveals all cell bodies by staining RNA.

Golgi stains

A cell stain that fills a small proportion of neurons with a dense, dark product.

Autoradiography

A histological technique that shows the distribution of radioactively labeled chemicals in tissues.

Immunohistochemistry (IHC)

A technique in which labeled antibodies are used to visualize the histological distribution of specific proteins.

In Situ Hybridization

A method for detecting particular RNA transcripts in tissue sections by providing a labeled nucleotide probe that is complementary to, and will therefore hybridize with, the transcript of interest, thereby reflecting the activation of specific genes.

Tract tracers

A compound used to identify the routes and interconnections of neuronal projections.

Axonal Transport

The transportation of materials between the neuronal cell body and axon terminals.

Astrocyte

A star-shaped glial cell with numerous processes that extend in all directions.

Microglial cell

Also called microglia. Extremely small glial cells that remove cellular debris from injured or dead cells.

Oligodendrocytes

A type of glial cell that forms myelin in the central nervous system.

Schwann cells

A glial cell that forms myelin in the peripheral nervous system.

Myelination

The process of ensheathing axons in myelin.

Myelin

The fatty insulation around an axon, formed by glial cells, that speeds the conduction of action potentials.

Nodes of Ranvier

A gap between successive segments of the myelin sheath where the axon membrane is exposed.

Edema

The swelling of tissue, such as in the brain, in response to injury.

Multiple Sclerosis (MS)

Literally, "many scars." A disorder characterized by widespread degeneration of myelin.

Gross Neuroanatomy

Anatomical features of the nervous system that are apparent to the naked eye.

Peripheral nervous system

The portion of the nervous system that includes all the nerves and neurons outside the brain and spinal cord.

Central Nervous System (CNS)

The portion of the nervous system that includes the brain and the spinal cord.

Nerves

A collection of axons bundled together outside the central nervous system.

Motor nerves

A nerve that conveys neural activity to muscle tissue and causes it to contract.

Sensory nerves

A nerve that conveys sensory information from the periphery into the central nervous system.

Somatic Nervous System

The part of the peripheral nervous system that provides neural connections to muscles and conducts sensory information to the CNS.

Autonomic Nervous System

The part of the peripheral nervous system that supplies neural connections to glands and to smooth muscles of internal organs.

Cranial nerves

A nerve that is connected directly to the brain.

Spinal nerves

Also called somatic nerve. A nerve that emerges form the spinal cord.

Cranial Nerve I

Sensory: Olfactory (smell)

Cranial Nerve II

Sensory: Vision(s)

Cranial Nerves III, IV, VI

Motor: Muscles that move the eyes