Chapter 1.

1. What are brain ventricles, and what functions have been ascribed to them over
the ages?
brain ventricles () are hollow tubes with fluid. Fluid forced out of the
ventricles through the nerves might literally pump you up and cause the
movement of the limbs.
2. What experiment did bell perform to show that the nerves of the body contain a
mixture of sensory and motor fibers?
Cutting the two spinal roots: dorsal root and ventral root separately and
observing the consequences in experimental animals. He found that cutting only the
ventral roots caused muscle paralysis.
3. What did Flourens experiments suggest were the functions of the cerebrum and
the cerebellum?
Cerebrum: is involved in sensation and perception.
Cerebellum: play a role in coordination of movement.
4. What is the meaning of the term animal model?
Animal models are animals that are used by scientists to examine the process
they wish to understand in human.
5. A region of the cerebrum is now called Brocas area. What function do you think
this region performs, and why?
Brocas area is responsible for the production of speech. Broca, the scientist,
examined a patients brain, a patient who could understand language but could not
talk, and found a lesion in the left fontal lobe, which is now referred to the brocas
area.
6. What are the differ levels of analysis in neuroscience research? What types of
question do researchers ask at each level?
- Molecular neuroscience: Who are the messengers that allow neurons to
communicate with one another.
- Cellular neuroscience: (studying how all those molecules work together to give the
neuron its special properties.) How many neurons are there and how do they differ
in function. How do neurons influence other neurons?
- Systems neuroscience: eg, vision system, motor system. How different neural
circuits analyze sensory information, form perceptions of the eternal world, make
decisions, and execute movements.
- Behavioral Neuroscience: (how do neural systems work together to produce
integrated behaviors?) What neural systems account for gender specific behaviors?
Where in the brain do dreams come from?
- Cognitive neuroscience: (the neural mechanisms responsible for human mental
activity: self awareness, mental imagery, and language) Study how the activity of
the brain creates the mind.
7. What are the steps in the scientific process? Describe each one.
- Observation: during experiments design to test a hypothesis.
- Replication: repeating the experiment on different subjects or different patients as
many times as necessary, to rule out the observation occurred by chance.
- Interpretation: depend on the state of knowledge at the time observation was
made and on the preconceived notions (mind set) of the scientists who made it.
- verification: the observation is sufficiently robust that it will be reproduced by any
competent scientist who follows the protocols of the original observer. A successful

verification= the observation is accepted as fact.

Chapter 2
1. State the neuron doctrine in a single sentence. To whom is this insight credited?
Neurons adhere to the cell theory. Santiago Cajal.
(The neurites of different neurons are not continuous with one another.)
2. Which parts of a neuron are shown by a Golgi stain that are not shown by a Nissl
stain?
Cell nucleus and neurites (axons and dendrites).
3. What are three physical characteristics that distinguish axons from dendrites?
1. Axon is of uniform diameter through out its length.
Dendrites extend from the cell body and generally taper to a fine point.
2. Axons can travel over great distances in the body (a meter or more).
Dendrites rarely extend more than 2mm in length.
3. Axons generally extend at right angles.
4. The cell body usually gives rise to a single axon while many dendrites extend
from the cell
body.
4. Of the following structures, state which ones are unique to neurons and which
are not: nucleus,
mitochondria, rough ER, synaptic vesicle, Golgi apparatus.
The synaptic vesicle.
5. What are the steps by which the information in the DNA of the nucleus directs
the synthesis of a membrane-associated protein molecule?
DNA--------------- mRNA----------------- Protein
Transcript
translation
DNA--------------- RNA ----------------- mRNA-----------------------------------------------
Protein
transcript
RNA slicing
translation (The assembling of proteins from
amino acids under the direction of the mRNA)
6. Colchicine () is a drug that causes microtubules to break apart
(depolymerize). What effect would this drug have on anterograde transport?
What would happen in the axon terminal?
Microtubules do not extend into the terminal.
7. Classify the cortical pyramidal cell ()based on (a) the number of neuritis,
(b) the presence or absence of dendritic spines, (c) connections, and (d) axon
length.
8. What is myelin? What does it do? Which cells provide it in the central nervous
system?
Chapter 3
1. What are the two functions that the proteins perform in the neuronal membrane
to establish and maintain the resting membrane potential?
1. Channels. Ion selectivity.