NEUR200 final

A patient undergoes removal of their left medial temporal lobe to control seizures. After the surgery, they are unable to recall events that occurred just hours before the operation. This case illustrates which type of memory disruption?

Time-dependent retrograde amnesia

A 22-year-old student presents with preserved speech fluency and comprehension but has difficulty repeating spoken sentences, especially those with complex syntax. Which disorder best matches this profile?

Conduction aphasia

A patient recovering from surgery to the right temporal lobe demonstrates intact language but has difficulty recalling visual details of past events. This supports what hemispheric specialization?

Right temporal lobe for visual-episodic memory

After learning a list of word pairs, high school students are tested 10 hours later. The group that slept shortly after studying recalls significantly more items than the group that stayed awake. This result best illustrates:

Sleep-dependent memory consolidation

A patient with bilateral hippocampal damage can navigate familiar environments but struggles to learn new spatial layouts. This observation suggests the hippocampus is essential for:

Encoding new spatial memories

A neurologist observes that a patient can recognize musical tones but cannot distinguish pitch differences. This impairment is most likely due to dysfunction in:

Heschl’s gyrus

A person experiences muscle atonia during REM sleep but suddenly begins to act out dreams physically. Neurological testing shows low GABA activity. What disorder is most likely present?

REM behavior disorder

fMRI is most sensitive to:

Blood oxygen level–dependent (BOLD) signals

A patient retains the ability to copy complex drawings but cannot recognize or name them. This pattern of intact perception but failed recognition is most consistent with:

Associative agnosia

A patient with sleep paralysis reports full awareness upon waking but an inability to move for several seconds. This phenomenon occurs because:

REM motor inhibition persists while monitoring regions awaken

During surgery to remove an epileptic focus, electrodes are placed directly on the cortex to map function. This technique is:

Electrocorticography (ECoG)

A neuroscientist needs to capture real-time brain activity during language production. Which method offers the best temporal resolution?

EEG

A student has difficulty maintaining attention and forming new long-term memories after several nights of disrupted sleep. Which brain region’s disrupted function is most likely contributing to this impairment?

Hippocampus

In a research study, subjects perform a working memory task while activity is recorded in the amygdala and orbitofrontal cortex. The method is most likely:

fMRI

A person reports vivid dreams but begins moving their limbs aggressively during REM sleep. What neurotransmitter system is most likely deficient?

GABA

Following a stroke in the left fusiform gyrus, a patient cannot read words but can name pictures and write. The deficit is best described as:

Alexia

A researcher is studying long-term memory consolidation during sleep. Which neural event is most strongly associated with this process?

Sleep spindles

A man can no longer recall spatial layouts of new buildings but navigates his hometown easily. The deficit suggests damage to:

Hippocampus

During fear conditioning experiments, lesions to the amygdala prevent subjects from learning the association. This supports its role in:

Emotional memory

A patient is able to repeat speech and shows fluent language, but comprehension is impaired. This profile is most consistent with:

Transcortical sensory aphasia

Which neurotransmitter is most directly involved in long-term potentiation via NMDA receptor activity?

Glutamate

In an experiment on synaptic plasticity, repeated stimulation of a neuron leads to a prolonged increase in synaptic strength. This effect is best explained by the role of:

NMDA receptor–mediated calcium influx and CREB activation

A researcher electrically stimulates area M1. What is the likely result?

Voluntary movement

Patients with damage to the inferior frontal gyrus often present with:

Nonfluent speech and difficulty producing words

A child watches her mother brush her hair, then imitates the action. This is mediated by:

Mirror neurons

Sleep researchers studying patients with Fatal Familial Insomnia observed complete loss of deep sleep. This is due to degeneration of the:

Hippocampus

The EEG of a sleeping person suddenly shows high amplitude, low frequency waves. This suggests:

Slow-wave sleep

In working memory tasks, spatial information primarily involves the:

Dorsal stream

Following extensive temporal lobe damage, a patient becomes pedantic, paranoid, and socially inappropriate. This pattern is consistent with:

Temporal-lobe personality

A patient is unable to recognize familiar faces but can identify voices and names. This condition is:

Prosopagnosia

A man loses the ability to recognize objects, yet he can accurately draw and copy them. His condition is:

Associative agnosia

In the context of synaptic plasticity, BDNF enhances:

Glutamate receptor activity and LTP

A patient reports feeling awake but unable to move their body upon regaining consciousness. This experience is most consistent with:

Sleep paralysis

After hippocampal damage, HM retained the ability to improve at tasks like gardening, showing:

Intact procedural memory

In the all-or-none principle of neuronal firing:

Action potentials are uniform; frequency varies

A patient with Parkinson’s disease has difficulty learning a new motor skill through repetition but can verbally describe the steps. This pattern suggests impairment in:

Procedural learning via the basal ganglia

The sleep-wake cycle is primarily regulated by the:

Suprachiasmatic nucleus

In EEG recordings, brief bursts of high-frequency waves during stage 2 sleep are called:

Sleep spindles

Narcolepsy is most directly linked to a deficiency of which neuropeptide?

Orexin

A researcher blocks NMDA receptors in a rodent’s hippocampus. The animal then shows impaired performance in a spatial memory task. This result supports the role of NMDA receptors in:

Long-term potentiation and memory encoding

Which structure is most involved in regulating emotional responses to threatening stimuli?

Amygdala

A man who recently suffered a concussion cannot recall the moments just before impact. This suggests:

Time-dependent retrograde amnesia

In the Morris water maze task, rats with hippocampal damage show deficits in:

Spatial navigation

Following sleep deprivation, a student has difficulty forming new memories. This supports sleep’s role in:

Memory consolidation

The resting membrane potential of a neuron is maintained by the:

Sodium-potassium pump

Damage to area V4 would most likely result in:

Cortical color blindness

While reading, a patient must trace each letter with their finger to comprehend words. This is a compensatory strategy for:

Alexia

A patient presents with fluent but nonsensical speech, frequent use of incorrect words, and poor comprehension. Repetition is also impaired. What condition does this most likely reflect?

Wernicke’s aphasia

In a memory study, stimulation of the entorhinal cortex increased performance in a spatial navigation task. This supports its role in:

Spatial memory

A neuron reaches its threshold and fires an action potential. Sodium enters, followed by potassium leaving. What happens next?

Repolarization and return to resting potential

Circadian rhythms

24 hour biological cycles influential in the regulation of sleep and other physical responses

What does light do to your sleep?

Readjust people's biological clock by affecting the activity of the hypothalamus

Temperature

Impact how we react as well (things like barometric pressure can impact you as well)

What purpose does the hypothalamus serve

Circadian clock

Superchiasmatic nucleus (SCN)

Connected to your optic nerve (eyes -> cortex) and it's above your optic chiasma (cross)

What influences the SCN

Light

What does SCN control

Melatonin in the pineal gland

How many pineal gland(s) do you have?

1

What aspects/feel does the SCN impact

Makes you sleepy, weight, and mood (cortisol)

What happens in sleep stage 1

EEF theta waves

What happens in sleep stage 2

Higher frequency and low amplitude

What is involved in sleep stage 2?

K complex and sleep spindles interact

What kind of waves do K complex does it give

High frequency (sharp/tall waves)

What causes K complexes?

Temporal inhibition of neuronal firing

What causes you to suddenly wake up?

K complex

Where are sleep spindles generated

Thalamus

What do sleep spindles do to your body?

Inhibition of sensory/stimulation

Why are sleep spindles important?

More refreshed to perform on a learning task

What happens in sleep stages 3/4

high amplitude (slow waves) and lower frequency (delta waves)

Where does deep sleep take place?

Sleep stages 3/4

What happens in deep sleep

Memory conservation/reorganization

What happens in sleep stage 5

High frequency (beta waves)

What stages do dreams occur?

Stage 5 (REM sleep)

Why is REM important?

Helps make the connections stronger

What is involved in reticular formation

Ascending fibers

What does reticular formation do?

Influence physiological arousal

Where is Locus coeruleus?

Pons

What does Locus coeruleus cause?

Insomnia

What is involved in the hypothalamus?

Histamine

What causes insomnia

Too much histamine

What does Orexin do chemically?

Inhibition of orexin

Why is Orexin important?

Necessary to stay awake

What causes narcolepsy?

Lack of hypothalamic cells that produce orexin

What happens during Night terrors?

Abrupt awakening from NREM sleep accompanied by intense autonomic arousal and feeling of panic

What happens during Nightmares?

Anxiety arousing dreams

What is REM behavior disorder?

People who move around vigorously during their REM periods, acting out their dreams

What causes REM behavior disorder?

GABA deficiency

What causes Parasomnia?

Substantial inhibition in one brain area which causes not too much in another

What causes Sleepwalking?

Motor cortex is awake

What causes Lucid dreaming?

Monitoring areas are awake

What happens during Sleep paralysis?

Waking while you can’t move

What causes Fatal familial insomnia?

Onset occurs when a critical amount of protein PrP is converted to protein PrPres

What area of the brain causes Fatal familial insomnia?

Degeneration of the thalamus

What are the consequences on Fatal familial insomnia?

Absence of sleep spindles and k-complexes with a lack of deep sleep

What does sleep conserve

Energy

What does sleep do to your memory?

Strengthen new synapses and weaken/remove old synapses that aren't used anymore (pruning)

Where does encoding process start

Sensory to short term memory

Where are visual objects processed in the brain?

Right prefrontal and parahippocampal cortex

Where are words formed in the brain?

Left prefrontal and parahippocampal cortex

Where are things consolidated in the brain for memory?

Medial temporal lobe