Behavioral Neuroscience - UIowa - Fall 2025 - Exam 1

The application of the principles of biology to the study of physiological, genetic, and developmental mechanisms of behavior in humans and non-human animals. It also examines how experience, or environment, modifies the brain and behavior.

Behavioral Neuroscience

The scientific study of the nervous system; a general term.

Neuroscience

It has the same meaning as behavioral neuroscience, although more passé.

Biological psychology (Biopsychology/psychobiology)

It's the same as neuroscience, although it has more tradition in biology.

Neurobiology

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

Neurology

Similar to biopsychology, but it involves the study of brain lesions or other damage to make inferences about function. It may use cognitive testing and/or brain imaging.

Neuropsychology

It is not neuroscience at all. It quantitatively investigates the relationship between physical stimuli and the sensations and perceptions that they affect.

Psychophysics

Perspectives of Analysis in Behavioral Neuroscience fall into these 4 categories.

Descriptive (What does a behavior look like). Evolutionary (How has a behavior or function diversified from earlier, less complex species). Developmental (Analyzes the behavior and its biological characteristics over the life span). Mechanistic (Involves some manipulation to relate a behavior to the activity of the brain, circuits, cells, molecules, or genes).

This would be an example of which perspective of analysis. "What are the features of learning (type -- spatial, object; amount of information that can be stored, etc.)?"

Descriptive

This would be an example of which perspective of analysis. "How do different species compare in types of learning?"

Evolutionary

This would be an example of which perspective of analysis. "When does a certain type of learning first appear during life? How does this change across the life span?"

Developmental

This would be an example of which perspective of analysis. "What are the anatomical and chemical changes in the brain that hold memory?"

Mechanistic

This describes analyzing something on different scales. Say from the behavioral scale, to the systematic scale, to the cellular scale, to the molecular scale.

Levels of Analysis

An approach to understanding based upon reducing the nature of complex things to their interactions or more fundamental parts

Reductionism

An 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.

Emergentism

This is concerned with reconciling the relationship between mental processes and bodily states/processes.

Mind-body problem

The belief that there are different kinds of substances that exist independently, one for consciousness/feelings.

Dualism

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

Monism

The idea that everything that exists is physical in nature.

Materialism

The idea that physical and psychological phenomena are mentally constructed, and are therefore only explicable in terms of the mind.

Mentalism

The idea that mental processes and brain processes are the same but described in different terms.

Identity Position

The idea that different parts of the brain serve different functions. Can be extrapolated to say that structures that look the same/different should also have the same/different functions.

Localization Theory

The idea that brain function is not localized. Instead, that function is distributed homogeneously throughout the brain.

Holism

The philosophers from this time period that the heart and liver were responsible for the functions of the functions we now ascribe to the brain.

BCE - Aristotle, Hippocrates, Plato

This surgeon from Roman times deduced that the brain was important for cognition; however, he mistakenly believed the ventricles were important not the gray matter.

200AD - Galen

These anatomists from much later believed the brain was responsible for higher level functions but were stuck in ventricular localization.

1500s - Da Vinci and Vesalius

This Oxford physician wrote Cerebri anatome in 1664. He proposed that cerebral hemispheres controlled memory, that imagination is tied to the cerebral hemispheres, that brain material is implicated in sensation and movement, and that the cerebellum and brain stem are involved in vital and involuntary systems.

Thomas Willis (1621-1675)

This philosopher was a proponent of Dualism and thought of the brain as a reflexive machine.

René Descartes (1596-1650)

This person isolated the respiratory center to one small part of the brain stem in 1806.

Legallois (1770-1840)

This states that the dorsal spinal nerve roots contain only sensory fibers and ventral spinal roots contain only motor fibers.

Bell-Magendie Law

The idea that skull features are indicative of brain development, such that specific faculties can be detected by surface features.

Phrenology

The creator of the popular theory of phrenology in 1809, which did lead to the idea of cortical localization.

Franz Joseph Gall (1758-1828).

The first person to provide definitive proof of cortical localization, based on the case of Monsier Leborgne, who was incapable of forming speech.

Paul Broca (1824-1880)

The theory that the entire body, including the nervous system, is made up of individual cells. It was proposed by Theodore Schwann in 1839, and later proven by Cajal.

Neuron Doctrine

The incorrect idea that branches of nerve cells form a continuous net

Nerve-net theory

A silver staining procedure which allows for visualizing of occasional cells.

Golgi Staining

This scientist began working with silver stains, and made significant improvements to the method to amass an extraordinary of anatomical data describing neuron structure.

Santiago Ramon y Cajal

This scientist wrote about comparative localization studies in the brain cortex on the basis of cellular architecture in 1909.

Korbinian Brodmann

This suggests that mental phenomena and behavior can be described in terms of interconnected brain regions subserving different functions.

Connectionism

This is an alternative word for cellular organization.

Cytoarchitecture

Two types of cells in the human nervous system.

Neurons and Glia

Neurons have these five main components.

Dendrites, Soma, Axon, Presynaptic Terminals, Synapse

A junctional point between neurons that transmits/receives electrical or chemical impulses.

Synapse

3 Types of Multipolar Neurons

Stellate, Fusiform, Pyramidal

3 Types of Poles of Neurons

Unipolar, Bipolar, Multipolar

Describe the Hippocampal Circuitry/Pathway.

Entorhinal Cortex, Perforant Pathway, Dentate Gyrus, Mossy Fiber Pathway, CA3, Schaeffer Collaterals, CA1, Out

Describe the Amygdala Circuitry/Pathway.

Information from the auditory cortex and auditory thalamus enters the lateral nucleus of the amygdala, which enters the basolateral nucleus of the amygdala, which enters the central nucleus of the amygdala. It then exits.

A neuron that is specialized at one end to be highly sensitive to a particular type of stimulation. Most are unipolar.

Sensory Neuron

This type of neuron has its soma in the spinal cord and receives excitation from other neurons and conducts impulses along its axon to a muscle. Most are multipolar.

Motor Neuron

The branching fibers lined with synaptic receptors that receive information from other neurons

Dendrites

Tiny protuberances from the dendrites which provide sites for postsynaptic contact. These spines allow for rapid changes in connectivity.

Dendritic Spines

This structure contains the nucleus, mitochondria, ribosomes, and other structures found in other cells.

Cell body/Soma/Perikaryon

The thin fiber responsible for transmitting nerve impulses toward other neurons, organs, or muscles. Neurons only have one, but it may branch (also called bifurcation).

Axon

The end points of an axon where the chemicals are released to communicate with other neurons.

Presynaptic terminals/Boutons

This term refers to bringing information toward a structure.

Afferent

This term refers to carrying information away from a structure.

Efferent

Neurons with dendrites and axons that are completely contained within a single structure.

Interneurons

This area, composed mostly of dendrites, is where neurons receive information from other neurons.

Input Zone

This area, located mostly in the cell body and axon hillock, is where all incoming information into the neuron is combined to determine whether or not to send a signal of its own.

Integration Zone

This area, located in the axon, carries the neuron's own electrical signal away from the cell body and toward the next neuron.

Conduction Zone

This area, located at axon terminals or boutons, is where the neuron's activity is transmitted across synapses to other neurons.

Output Zone

The space between the axon terminal/bouton and the membranes of two neurons.

Synapse

The region in the presynaptic bouton that regulates the release of chemicals, known as neurotransmitters, for communication with the neuron on the postsynaptic side

Active Zone

These serve as packages that contain neurotransmitter molecules

Synaptic Vesicles

These are specialized chemical substances that are used to communicate with the postsynaptic neuron.

Neurotransmitters

These are specialized proteins that capture and react when the neurotransmitter binds to them; this results in localized change sin the electrical activity of the postsynaptic cell.

Receptors

This type of microscope shines visible light on a sample.

Light microscope

This is a protein-dense network attached to the postsynaptic membrane. It works to ensure that all of the receptors are in close proximity to the active zone, where neurotransmitter release occurs.

Postsynaptic density

This type of microscope uses fluorescent labeling in tissues and a laser to excite the fluorescent labels to emit a photon.

Laser-scanning microscope (LSM)

This type of microscope uses a pinhole to eliminate out-of-focus information

Confocal (LSM)

This type of microscope uses a beam of electrons as a source of illumination and can reveal smaller objects due to not being constrained by light.

Electron microscope

The other major components of the nervous system (besides neurons) that exchange chemicals with adjacent neurons.

Glia

A star-shaped glial cell with numerous process that extend in all directions. It can attach to neurons and blood vessels to regulate local blood flow and provide supplies to neurons.It may also be involved in synaptic communication and the formation and pruning of synapses.

Astrocytes

This type of glial cell extends and retracts very fine processes to survey for damage in the nervous system. They are activated in response to injury, growing, and shape change. They can form an area of containment around a damage site to remove and/or destroy debris. They can be thought of as the immune cells of the nervous system.

Microglial cells or Microglia

This type of glial cell builds the myelin sheath that surrounds axons of neurons in the central nervous system.

Oligodendrocytes

This type of glial cell builds the myelin sheath that surrounds axons of neurons in the peripheral nervous system.

Schwann cells

This type of glial cell guides the migration of neurons and the growth of their axons and dendrites during brain development, and occasionally, during adulthood.

Radial glia

This is a separation between circulating blood and the surrounding extracellular fluid in the brain.

Blood-brain barrier (BBB)

The blood-brain barrier is comprised of these two layers. These two layers serve each of these two functions.

Endothelial cells (inner layer) to prevent diffusion in and out of blood vessels. Astrocytes (outer layer) to support endothelial cells.

Diffusion that can happen freely across a membrane. In the case of the blood-brain barrier, this includes molecules such as CO₂, O₂, and some fat-soluble molecules.

Passive transport

Movement of molecules that requires energy that is more tightly regulated. In the case of the blood-brain barrier, this includes molecules such as glucose and amino acids.

Active transport

The study of the structure, or organization, of the nervous system.

Neuroanatomy

One of two major divisions of the vertebrate nervous system, that contains the somatic and autonomic nervous systems.

Peripheral Nervous System (PNS)

One of two major divisions of the vertebrate nervous system, that contains the brain and spinal cord.

Central Nervous System (CNS)

This nervous system consists of axons conveying information from the sensory organs to the CNS and from the CNS to the muscles.

Somatic Nervous System

The property of a system that regulates its internal environment for maintaining a stable, constant condition.

Homeostasis

This nervous system sends and receives messages to regulate the automatic behaviors of the body (heart rate, blood pressure, respiration, digestion, etc.). Primary role of this nervous system is to maintain homeostasis.

Autonomic Nervous System

This part of the PNS and Autonomic Nervous System prepares the individual for fight-or-flight responses.

Sympathetic Nervous System

This part of the PNS and Autonomic Nervous System promotes the maintenance of the body under resting conditions. Promotes digestion, lowers heart rate and blood pressure, etc.

Parasympathetic Nervous System

This is a cluster of neurons in the PNS

Ganglion (ganglia pl.)

These fibers in the sympathetic nervous system project to targets, by traversing long distances.

Long postganglionic fibers

This is the neurotransmitter used by sympathetic ganglionic neurons.

Norepinephrine (Noradrenaline)

These axons in the parasympathetic nervous system have a slower graded response and are less coordinated.

Long preganglionic fibers

This is the chemical neurotransmitter released from postganglionic neurons in the parasympathetic nervous system.

Acetylcholine (ACh)

Matter located in the center of the spinal cord that is densely packed with cell bodies and dendrites.

Gray matter

Matter composed mostly of myelinated axons that carries information from the gray matter to the brain or other areas of the spinal cord.

White matter

A term used to describe a group of cells within the central nervous system.

Nucleus

The idea that each part of the spinal cord sends sensory information to the brain and receives motor commands for specific body parts.

Segmentation

This portion of the spinal cord brings sensory information into the central nervous system via the dorsal horn.

Dorsal root ganglion

A group of axons located in within the peripheral nervous system.

Nerve(s)