Neuroscience Midterm

Which cerebral hemisphere processes which visual field/periphery?

The left visual field is processed by the right cerebral hemisphere, and the right visual field is processed by the left cerebral hemisphere.

Which cerebral hemisphere controls which half of the body’s motor control?

The left cerebral hemisphere controls the right side’s motor control, and the right cerebral hemisphere controls the left side’s motor control.

Which side of the brain primarily controls language? What does this infer for split brain?

The left cerebral hemisphere primarily controls language. This means that when something is processed by the left brain, split brain patients can verbally identify it and write that they see it. However, when something is processed by the right brain, patients write that they see it, but can not verbally say they see it, and they can not identify it in either form.

What is Gazzaniga’s interpreter theory?

All behaviour is controlled by unconscious processes. Our conscious thoughts do not directly control our body, despite our intuition. Free will is an illusion. Consciousness is merely a storyteller. Storytelling involves language, so consciousness can only be found in the left cerebral cortex of humans.

What is Descarte’s Mind-Body dualism?

Our body exists in a physical realm and our mind exists in a seperate immaterial realm.

What is Descarte’s cartesian impasse?

How can an immaterial mind control a physical body?

What is determinism?

Every event is a consequence of prior causes. Everything is due to physical laws that creates a chain of events.

Which atoms primarily compose cells?

Carbon, Hydrogen, Nitrogen, Oxygen, Phosphorous, Sulfur

What is the air we breathe primarily composed of (99%)?

N2 and O2.

What are he five main molecules of life that we can find in cells?

Water, sugar, fat, nucleotide, amino acid

What is a peptide?

A short chain of amino acids.

What is a protein?

A long chain of amio acids.

What is a ribosome?

A molecular machine made id RNA and proteins that synthesizes proteins by interlinking amino acids held by tRNA molecules in the order determined by the genetic code (by linking them to an mRNA). It translates mRNA into proteins.

What transcribes DNA into mRNA?

Enzymes (RNA polymerase).

What are a prokaryotic cell’s properties?

A cell membrane filled with cytoplasm (sugar, lipids, nucleotides, amino acids, DNA, RNA, proteins, ribosomes). There are no organelles and no nucleus, free floating DNA/RNA.

What are a eukaryotic cell’s properties?

Membrane bound organelles like the mitochondria that generates ATP, a nucleus that holds the DNA compacted in chromosomes.

What is a mitochondria?

A membrane bound organelle that gnerates molecules of ATP by digesting sugar molecules.

What is a ribozyme?

An enzyme that interlinks neighboring amino acids during translation in the ribosome.

What are microtubules?

Tracks for intracellular transport, maily to move vesicles.

What ions are included as building blocks of ordinary matter and cells?

Na+, K+. Ca2+, Mg2+, Cl-

What is the rate law?

The strength of the action potenrial is represented by the rate if firing: the number of action potentials per second

What is the all or none law?

The amplitude of an action potential (+40 mV) stays constant as it propagates down an axon.

What are autoreceptors and their properties?

Presynaptic (expressed on the neurotransmitter-releasing terminal), let the cell know it has released neurotransmitter, metabotropic, decrease the cell’s excitability (

What is the general sequence of events during an action potential?

Threshold of excitation (-40 mV), V-gated sodium channels open, sodium rushes in (peaks at +40 mV), V-gated potassium channels open, potassium rushes out and hyperpolarizes the cell (briefly more negative than -70 mV), neuron returns to rest (-70 mV).

What are oligodendrocytes?

Glial cells that produce up to 50 myelin sheaths that they wrap around multiple nearby axons. They are only expressed in the CNS.