Bio Psych Final Study

Which of the following best describes the concept of evolution?

"Reproduction of the fittest"

What is the approximate resting potential of the inside of a neuron's membrane, relative to the outside?

-70 millivolts

If one parent is homozygous dominant for a gene and the other is homozygous for a recessive, what percentage of the children will display the dmoninant trait?

100%

How many pairs of cranial nerves do humans have?

12 pairs

Which of the following would be a functional explanation for why birds sing?

Birds sing to defend territories and attract mates.

If you were interested in determining if the volume of the hippocampus is associated with the amount of stress a person was experiencing, which of the following methods would be the best choice?

CAT

What are chromosomes composed of?

DNA

Chemically, what is the route from genes to their expression?

DNA to RNA to proteins

Which of the following methods provides the best temporal resolution?

EEG and ERPs

Evoked potentials in the brain are most likely to be detected by a(n):

EEG.

The primary difference between an EPSP and an action potential is that:

EPSPs are subthreshold events that decay over time and space.

Which statement most accurately describes embryonic development of the nervous system in humans?

Far more neurons are produced than will ultimately survive.

Suppose "A" is a dominant gene and "a" is a recessive gene. One parent has genes Aa and the other parent has genes aa. What genes will the children probably have?

Half will be Aa, half aa.

Why is it that all neurons in a healthy adult brain have made appropriate connections?

If an axon does not make the appropriate connections by a certain age, it dies.

What is the function of the enzyme acetylcholinesterase?

It breaks acetylcholine down into components for recycling

What makes nitric oxide unique among neurotransmitters?

It is a gas

What is TRUE about altruistic behavior?

It is difficult to explain from an evolutionary/genetic point of view.

Which of the following is NOT true of Huntington's disease?

It is generally treated with L-dopa.

How does glucose enter the brain?

It is pumped in by an active transport system.

What happens once an action potential starts?

It is regenerated at other points along the axon

What happens if an immature neuron is transplanted to another area of the brain early in its development?

It takes on all the characteristics of neighboring neurons.

What characteristic of L-dopa makes it an effective treatment for Parkinson's disease?

L-dopa can cross the blood-brain barrier.

Which of the following brain imaging techniques does NOT provide a functional measure of brain activity?

MRI

Which of the following methods is dependent upon injecting a radioactive chemical into the blood to measure blood flow?

PET

Just after the peak of the action potential, what movement of ions restores the membrane to approximately the resting potential?

Potassium ions leave the cell.

Which of the following might produce spatial summation?

Present two or more weak stimuli at the same time

Which of the following statements regarding reflexes would Charles Sherrington most likely agree with?

Repeated stimuli occurring within a brief time can have a cumulative effect.

Which type of glia builds myelin sheaths around axons in the periphery of the body?

Schwann cells.

What is true about cortical neurons that have become insensitive to an eye that was sutured shut during the critical period?

Some sensitivity can be recovered if the other eye is sutured shut for a few months.

Stimulus A depolarizes a neuron just barely above the threshold. Stimulus B depolarizes a neuron to 10 mV beyond threshold. What can we expect to happen?

Stimulus A and stimulus B will produce the same response in the neurons.

Which of the following would be a physiological explanation for why birds sing?

Testosterone causes the growth of certain brain areas which control singing in certain birds.

Researchers rerouted the optic nerve of a newborn ferret to what would ordinarily be the auditory portion of the thalamus, while damaging the auditory input. What happened?

The auditory thalamus and cortex reorganized to become visual thalamus and cortex.

Which of the following is an advantage of having a resting potential?

The cell is prepared to respond quickly to a stimulus.

What is the synaptic cleft?

The gap between the presynaptic neuron and the postsynaptic neuron

Prior to the work of Santiago Ramon y Cajal, what did many investigators believe?

The tip of an axon physically merged with the next neuron.

Why do the effects of certain transmitters, such as serotonin, vary from one synapse to another?

There are several kinds of postsynaptic receptors for serotonin

Which of the following is NOT true of axons?

They carry information toward the soma.

Which of the following is true about EPSPs?

They decay over time and space.

Suppose one parent is homozygous dominant and the other is homozygous recessive. Which of the following would be true about their children?

They would all be carriers of the recessive gene.

What explanation would sociobiologists give for the tendency for men to be more promiscuous than women?

This is an efficient method for men to spread their genes.

A normal, healthy animal never contracts the flexor muscles and the extensor muscles of the same leg at the same time. Why not?

When the interneuron sends excitatory messages to one, inhibitory messages go to the other

When the neuron is at rest, what is responsible for moving potassium ions OUT of the cell?

a concentration gradient

What causes potassium ions to leave the axon just after the peak of the action potential?

a continuing concentration gradient and the opening of the potassium gates

When mechanical force is absorbed by a sensory receptor, the energy is transduced into a local depolarization or hyperpolarization. What is this called?

a receptor potential

What will cause a muscle to relax?

absence of acetylcholine

On a given trait, high heritability suggests that:

adopted children will closely resemble their biological parents.

Which of the following would most likely interfere with migration of neurons during development?

altering the chemical paths

A lesion is:

an area that has been damaged.

Which muscle is "antagonistic" to a flexor muscle in the right arm?

an extensor muscle in the right arm

Patients with damage to the primary motor cortex of the right hemisphere tend to ignore the fact that their left side is paralyzed. The ignorance of their problem is known as:

anosognosia.

A drug that blocks the effects of a neurotransmitter is a(n) ________; a drug that mimics or increases the effects is a(n) ________.

antagonist; agonist

Compared to dendrites, axons usually:

are covered with myelin

In comparison to cones, rods:

are more sensitive to dim light

Sensory neurons:

are specialized at one end to be highly sensitive to particular types of stimulation.

"Second messengers" are activated by a metabotropic neurotransmitter and carry their messages to:

areas within the postsynaptic cell

Sympathetic is to ____ as parasympathetic is to ____.

arousal; relaxation

What is it called when some animals are selectively bred because they possess some desirable characteristic?

artificial selection

The purpose of creating a sham lesion is to:

assess the effects of invasive surgery separately from the effects of the lesion itself

Where do most action potentials begin?

at the axon hillock

At what point do the sodium gates begin to close, shutting out further entry of sodium into the cell?

at the peak of the action potential

Ordinarily, stimulation of a neuron takes place:

at the synapse.

Which division of the nervous system consists of neurons that control the heart, intestines, and other organs?

autonomic

The information sender of the neuron, conveying an impulse toward either other neurons or a gland or muscle is called the:

axon.

Suppose a finger is amputated. The part of the cerebral cortex that used to respond to that finger will:

become responsive to other fingers or part of the palm.

On the basis of what evidence did Charles Sherrington first infer the properties of synapses?

behavioral observations

A drug that blocks the sodium gates of a neuron's membrane would:

block the action potential.

Mirror neurons are active when:

both when performing a movement and watching others perform that movement.

Studies on conscious decisions regarding voluntary movements suggest that:

brain activity for the movement begins before we are conscious of our decision.

Axons sort themselves over the surface of the target area:

by following a gradient of chemicals.

In contrast to people with posterior parietal damage, people with damage to certain parts of the occipital cortex outside the primary visual cortex:

cannot accurately describe what they see but can reach out to grasp it.

The basal ganglia work together to initiate movement by:

ceasing to inhibit movement.

If you have trouble with rapid, ballistic movement sequences that require accurate timing, you probably have suffered damage to the:

cerebellum.

If a neurologist tests an adult patient for infant reflexes, the neurologist is probably trying to determine whether the person has suffered damage to the:

cerebral cortex.

What is contained in the ventricles of the brain?

cerebrospinal fluid

If some of the axons innervating a given cell are destroyed or if they become inactive, what compensatory process takes place in the remaining presynaptic cells?

collateral sprouting

Monkeys with damage to area V4 lose:

color constancy

The principle that allows you to perceive an orange shirt to be the same color under varying lighting conditions is known as:

color constancy.

A man who has suffered from damage to the cerebellar cortex is given the finger-to-nose test. He is most likely to have trouble with which part of the task?

controlling the initial, rapid movement

Which plane shows brain structures as they would be seen from the front?

coronal

The large bundle of axons connecting the two hemispheres of the brain is called the:

corpus callosum.

The net effect of each cycle of the sodium-potassium pump is to:

decrease the number of positively charged ions within the cell.

The tree-like branches of a neuron that receive information from other neurons are called:

dendrites.

What is the result if a stimulus shifts the potential inside a neuron from the resting potential to a potential slightly closer to zero?

depolarization

An individual suffers damage to the temporal cortex, but maintains an intact parietal cortex. This may result in an inability to:

describe the size or shape of objects they see.

A lesion in the hypothalamus can lead to decreased activity in the cerebral cortex, even though the cerebral cortex is undamaged. The decreased activity in the cortex because of the loss of incoming neurons is called:

diaschisis.

What is one of the main symptoms of Parkinson's disease?

difficulty initiating movements

If you believe the mind and the brain to be separate, but somehow interact with each other, you would be considered a:

dualist.

Opiate drugs bind to receptors in the brain for

endorphins

The law of specific nerve energies states that:

every stimulation of the optic nerve is perceived as light

Mapping out the relationship between shared bone structures across different species suggests there is a(n) ____ explanation.

evolutionary

Depolarization is to ________ and hyperpolarization is to ________.

excitation; inhibition

The eye muscles can be moved with greater precision than the biceps muscles because the:

eye muscles have a lower ratio of muscle fibers to axons.

Which of the following methods provides the best spatial resolution?

fMRI

Which of the following techniques is dependent upon the release of oxygen from hemoglobin molecules?

fMRI

Compared to a long distance runner, a world class sprinter probably has more of which kind of fibers in her legs?

fast-twitch

Which would be especially important when running up a flight of stairs at full speed?

fast-twitch muscles

Suppose "A" is a dominant gene for the ability to curl the tongue lengthwise, and "a" is a recessive gene for inability to do so. Which of the following couples can be certain that all their children will be able to curl their tongue lengthwise?

father aa, mother AA

Drugs can cross the blood-brain barrier if they are soluble in:

fats.

Having an identical twin with Parkinson's disease greatly increases the other twin's likelihood of also getting Parkinson's disease if the:

first twin had early-onset Parkinson's disease.

Having camouflage that matches an animal's typical surroundings in order to provide protection from predators is an example of a(n) ____ explanation.

functional

What is the name given to a cluster of neurons outside the CNS?

ganglion

The optic nerve is composed of axons from which kind of cell?

ganglion cells

What does endogenous mean?

generated from within

Units of heredity that maintain their structural identity from one generation to another are:

genes.

Cell bodies of motor neurons would most likely be found in which of the following?

gray matter

The hills and valleys of the brain are called ____ and ____, respectively.

gyri, sulci

People with posterior parietal damage:

have trouble converting vision into action

Which activity is increased by the sympathetic nervous system?

heart rate

What consists of the medulla, the pons, and the cerebellum?

hindbrain

An individual has difficulty remembering certain things after brain damage, but all memories stored before the damage are intact. The brain area most likely damaged is the:

hippocampus

Recessive genes manifest their effects only when the individual is ____ for them.

homozygous

Across vertebrate species, the two factors that vary most in neural proliferation are:

how long proliferation lasts and the number of neurons produced each day.

Which of the following items would most likely attract the attention of a newborn baby?

human face

What is the result if a stimulus shifts the potential inside a neuron from the resting potential to a more negative potential?

hyperpolarization

An impairment of eating, drinking, temperature regulation, or sexual behavior suggests possible damage to which brain structure?

hypothalamus

Under what conditions is it impossible for a stimulus to produce an action potential?

if the membrane is in its absolute refractory period

When are the cells in the premotor cortex (in contrast to the primary motor cortex) most active?

in preparation for movements

Denervation supersensitivity and disuse supersensitivity are similar in that they both depend on:

increased number and effectiveness of post-synaptic receptors.

Alcohol can damage the developing brain by:

increasing synaptic inhibition and therefore apoptosis

The rooting reflex and the Babinski reflex are characteristic of which group?

infants, but not normal adults

Which of the following has the largest receptive fields and the greatest preferential sensitivity to highly complex visual patterns, such as faces?

inferior temporal cortex

Once within the cerebral cortex, the magnocellular pathway continues, with a dorsal branch important for:

integrating vision with action.

An axon releases chemicals:

into the junction between neurons.

When a neuron's membrane is at rest, the concentration gradient tends to move sodium ____ the cell and the electrical gradient tends to move it ____ the cell.

into, into

The neurotransmitter GABA exerts ________ effects by opening gates that allowing Cl- into the cell. This effect is ________.

ionotropic; inhibitory

stretch reflex

is caused by a stretch

Which of the following means "toward the side, away from the midline"?

lateral

What is responsible for sharpening contrast at visual borders?

lateral inhibition

Light is focused as it enters through which of the following structures?

lens and cornea

In the visual system of the mammalian cerebral cortex, the dorsal stream is specialized for detecting ____, and the ventral stream is specialized for detecting ____.

location/shape

Membranes that surround the brain and spinal cord are called:

meninges.

People with motion blindness probably have suffered damage to the:

middle-temporal cortex.

Where do the metabolic activities occur that provide energy for all of the other activities of the cell?

mitochondria

If a characteristic is controlled by an X-linked recessive gene, it produces its apparent effects:

more often in males.

While focusing on the car in front of you, you suddenly notice another car in your peripheral vision. You will probably have a difficult time describing the details of the second car because:

more receptors converge their inputs in the periphery.

What receives excitation from other neurons and conducts impulses to muscle or gland cells?

motor neurons

The cerebellum contributes to the control of what function?

movement

Magnocellular cells are to ____ as parvocellular cells are to ____.

movement; color

What disease is related to the destruction of myelin sheaths?

multiple sclerosis

Which of the following are two kinds of proprioceptors?

muscle spindles and Golgi tendon organs

What condition is improved by increasing the presence of acetylcholine in the synapse?

myasthenia gravis

The insulating material which covers many vertebrate axons is called the:

myelin sheath.

In the spinal cord, white matter is comprised mostly of ____, while gray matter is mostly ____.

myelinated axons, cell bodies

For some axons, glial cells produce an insulating sheath that makes rapid transmission possible. What is this process called?

myelination

What is the name given to the synapse where a motor neuron's axon meets a muscle fiber?

neuromuscular junction

For survival, developing neurons need:

neurotrophins and synaptic input

Ischemia is to ____ as hemorrhage is to ____.

obstruction, rupture

As a rule, all vertebrate neurons develop during an embryological stage. Among the few types of neurons that can develop in adulthood are:

olfactory receptors.

What type of glial cells myelinate axons in the brain and spinal cord?

oligodendrocytes

An autosomal gene is a gene:

on any chromosome other than the X or Y chromosome.

If there is a depolarizing effect on a neuron, the result will be that the neuron will fire:

only if it reaches threshold.

How human language develops as the result of genes and the opportunity to hear language during a sensitive period in early life is an example of a(n) ____ explanation.

ontogenetic

Understanding differences in intelligence as a function of early learning experiences is an example of a(n) ____ explanation.

ontogenetic

After you stare at a bright green object for a minute and look away, you see red. Which theory attempts to explain this finding?

opponent-process theory

If we compare the receptive fields of two simple cells in the primary visual cortex, chosen at random, in what way are they most likely to differ?

orientation (angle) of a line that they respond to

The sodium-potassium pump pumps sodium ions ____ and potassium ions ____.

out of the cell; into the cell

When a neuron's membrane is at rest, the concentration gradient tends to move potassium ____ the cell and the electrical gradient tends to move it ____ the cell.

out of, into

A stroke kills neurons in two waves, first by ____ and second by ____.

overstimulation, understimulation

Small receptive fields are to ____ cells as large receptive fields are to ____ cells.

parvocellular; magnocellular

Together, the somatic nervous system and the autonomic nervous system make up the ____ nervous system.

peripheral

Chemicals that release energy when struck by light are called:

photopigments.

If a person believes that hormones released at different stages of the menstrual cycle affect a person's mood, then it would be considered a(n) ____ explanation.

physiological

A stereotaxic instrument would most likely be used for:

placing an electrode in the brain.

The ability of the brain to change its anatomy over time, within limits, is known as:

plasticity.

The receptive field of a receptor is the:

point in space from which light strikes the receptor

What is the primary target area on the cerebral cortex for touch and other skin sensations?

postcentral gyrus

Visual information from the lateral geniculate area goes to the:

primary visual cortex.

Research with computers connected to brains of monkeys that were trained to move a cursor with a joystick found that the cursor moved:

prior to the movement of the joystick.

A ballistic movement:

proceeds automatically once it has been triggered

Stem cells are important for which of the following developmental processes?

proliferation

At the peak of the action potential, the electrical gradient of potassium:

pushes potassium out of the cell.

The presence of an all-or-none law suggests that neurons can only convey different messages by changing their:

rate or pattern of action potentials.

In what order does visual information pass through the retina?

receptor cells, bipolar cells, ganglion cells

Color vision deficiency is more common in males than in females because it is controlled by a:

recessive X-linked gene.

What difficulty does someone with prosopagnosia have?

recognizing faces

When Sperry cut a newt's optic nerve and rotated the eye by 180 degrees, each axon:

regenerated to the area where it had originally been.

According to the trichromatic theory of color vision, the most important factor in determining the color we see is the:

relative activity of short, medium, and long wavelength cones.

An MRI device creates an image of the brain based on:

release of electromagnetic energy from atomic nuclei.

So far, the only behavior that is apparently not influenced by genetics is:

religious affiliation.

Suppose you fell into a cave and lost your watch. Without any time cues, your circadian rhythm would:

remain relatively stable.

Compared to passive transport, the major disadvantage of active transport is that it:

requires expenditure of energy.

In depth perception, different views are received by each eye, depending on the distance of the object being viewed. What is this called?

retinal disparity

Which plane shows brain structures as they would be seen from the side?

sagittal

In order to elicit movement, the motor cortex:

sends axons to the brainstem and spinal cord

Which major functions are controlled by the cranial nerves?

sensation and muscle control of the head

After damage to the dorsal roots of the spinal cord, an individual will suffer what kind of loss?

sensation from the affected body area

One of the most distinctive features of neurons compared to other types of cells is their:

shape.

Which of the following would be considered a guided movement?

shooting a basketball

What information is used by postsynaptic cells of the lateral geniculate (in the thalamus) in a developing fetal brain to determine that incoming axons all come from spots near one another in the retina?

simultaneous activity

Which of the following is most clearly under the control of a circadian rhythm in most animals?

sleep

Internal organs are to ____ as movement of the body is to ____.

smooth muscles; striated muscles

When a neuron's membrane is at rest, which of the following molecules crosses through it MOST slowly?

sodium

When someone tickles you, the tickling sensation will be carried by neurons that are part of the ____ nervous system.

somatic

Nerves from the central nervous system convey information to the muscles and glands by way of the:

somatic nervous system.

Chemicals than cannot flow freely across a cell membrane enter a neuron through:

specialized protein channels.

New neurons have been found to grow in all of the following cases, except:

spinal cord of mammals.

Which of the following aspects of brain and neural functioning can be most clearly altered by experience?

structure of dendrites and axons

Which part of the nervous system prepares the body for "fight or flight" activities?

sympathetic

Ribosomes are the part of a cell that:

synthesizes new proteins.

Which of the following structures provides the main source of input to the cerebral cortex?

thalamus

If the spinal cord is cut at a given segment, the brain loses sensation at:

that segment and all segments below it.

An electroencephalograph measures:

the average activity of the cells in a given region of the brain

Which parts of the brain deteriorate most strongly in Huntington's disease?

the caudate nucleus, putamen, and globus pallidus

Necrosis is:

the death of neurons as a result of injury

When you state that the neuron's membrane is polarized, you are referring to a difference in electrical potential between:

the inside and the outside of the membrane

Cutting the left optic nerve in front of the optic chiasm would result in blindness in ____.

the left eye

What structure is composed of two layers of fat molecules that are free to flow around one another?

the membrane

Concentration gradients lead to what kind of movements?

the movement of ions to areas of their lowest concentrations

While bird watching, a red cardinal slowly hops into view. Which of the following characteristics are you most likely to notice first in your peripheral vision?

the movement of the bird

All of the following are reasons why the fovea is well-suited for highly detailed vision EXCEPT:

the optic nerve connects there.

Rods are to ____ as cones are to ____.

the periphery; the fovea

What is the point from which an axon releases chemicals into the synapse?

the presynaptic terminal

What is to prevent an action potential from exciting the area behind it and starting a "rebound" action potential traveling the opposite direction?

the refractory period

What is a physiological explanation for why children under the age of 9 months fail to show object permanence?

the relatively slow development of the prefrontal cortex

Light from the left half of the world strikes what part of the retina?

the right half

A monist believes that mind and body are:

the same thing.

What is one major cause for the resting potential of a neuron's membrane?

the sodium-potassium pump

When the neuron is at rest, what is responsible for moving sodium ions out of the cell?

the sodium-potassium pump

Brain studies of blind people suggest that they have greater attention to touch and auditory stimulation because:

their visual cortex is used for touch and verbal tasks.

Which of the following best characterizes how axons arrive at the correct target cells?

they follow chemical gradients from the target cell

Which axons will regenerate to a significant degree if cut or crushed?

those in the peripheral nervous system but not in the central nervous system

If you stare at a waterfall long enough to fatigue feature-detector neurons responsive to downward motion, then look at the rocks and trees next to the waterfall, how will the rocks and trees appear?

to move upward

Transcranial magnetic stimulation is often used:

to temporarily inactivate part of the brain

Where does the optic nerve send most of its information?

to the lateral geniculate

Which function is NOT performed by glia?

transmitting information

The visual paths in the temporal cortex collectively are referred to as the:

ventral stream.

The risk of having part of the brain unprotected by the blood-brain barrier is:

viruses or toxic chemicals are more likely to damage it.

Computerized axial tomography creates an image from:

x-rays.

Which of the following is an example of a motor program in a human?

yawning