Neurophysiology: Exam II

Name: ____________________________ Exam II (100 pts) Multiple-choice (2 pts each) 1) George got the top of his head sliced off with a laser. This cut is in what anatomical plane? A) Sagital. B) Coronal. Ouch! C) Horizontal. D) Medial. E) Lateral. Use the following figure to answer the questions 2-5. (Note: letters can be used for more than one answer.) 2) Is in the Occipital lobe. 3) Is critical for many vital autonomic functions. 4) Is responsible for sending out motor signals. 5) Is where auditory information is received. A B C D E 6) Which of the following is a true statement? A) Sensory information from the leg will enter the back (dorsal) part of the spinal cord. B) Afferent neurons have their cell bodies just outside the spinal cord. C) The spinal cord is part of the Central Nervous System. D) All of the above. E) None of the above. 7) The cerebellum… A) acts as a relay station, filtering all sensory information before it reaches higher brain areas. B) is mainly responsible for processing smell information. C) is part of the peripheral nervous system. D) is used to store motor programs for repetitive movements like typing. E) is where logic, reason, and decision making take place. 8) Which of the following is a true statement? A) The meningeal membrane lying closest to the brain is the dura mater. B) The thinnest miningeal membrane is the dura mater. C) The toughest meningeal membrane that is in contact with the skull is the arachnoid mater. D) Blood accumulating between the dura and arachnoid mater is a subdural hematoma. E) Cerebral spinal fluid flows through the pia mater’s spiderweb-like projections. 9) Which of the following is a true statement? A) There are only four basic taste transduction pathways. B) There are many papillae on each taste cell. C) A person typically has only 4-5 taste buds. D) All of the above. E) None of the above. 10) Which of the following is a true statement? A) Taste cells are not neurons. B) Taste cells release neurotransmitter when excited. C) Taste cells can respond to more than one basic taste. D) All of the above. E) None of the above. (Adapted from a question by Inderjit Pegany) 11) If voltage-gated Ca2+ channels in taste cells were all destroyed you would… A) lose all taste sensation. B) lose only salt and sour taste sensation. C) still have bitter and sweet taste sensation. D) only lose umami “delicious” taste sensation E) lose all but some bitter taste sensation. 12) Which of the following is a true statement? A) Olfactory receptors are true neurons with axons extending through the bottom of the skull. B) Olfactory receptor cells have several different types of odorant receptors on them. C) There are only five different types of odorant receptors in humans. D) Each taste bud has several olfactory receptor cells on it. E) Each odorant receptor type can only bind to a single odorant molecule. 13) Which of the following is a true statement? A) The optic disc is where we have the best visual acuity. B) The optic disc is devoid of blood vessels. C) The optic disc is the only way for visual information to leave the eye. D) All of the above. E) None of the above. 14) Which of the following is a true statement? A) This iris serves no purpose other than to woo members of the opposite sex. B) The iris has little muscles on the back side that control the shape of the lens. C) The iris has little muscles on the back side that control the shape of the cornea. D) The iris has little muscles on the back side that control the size of the pupil. E) None of the above is true. 15) The fovea… A) is in the center of the retina. B) only has a cones. C) has bipolar and ganglion cells pushed out of the way to create a clearer path for light. D) All of the above are true. E) None of the above is true. 16) True or False? A person with an elongated eyeball would near-sighted because they would have a hard time seeing far objects because the image would be focused into far in front of their retina. A) True B) False 17) If Shanette wanted to focus on a near object she would have to… A) change the shape of her cornea. B) move her retina closer to her lens. C) contract her ciliary muscles to pull the lens flat. D) relax her ciliary muscles to allow her lens to become fat. E) move her lens closer to her retina. 18) Which of the following is a true statement? A) Photoreceptors and bipolar cells are the only cells that can respond to light. B) Ganglion cells are the only cells that carry visual information out of the eye. C) There are about just as many rods as there are cones on the retina. D) Cones are more sensitive to light than are rods. E) There are no cones outside of the fovea. 19) Matt Allen was exposed to high doses of gamma rays which made his skull grow enormous and gave him the ability to see infrared. He became…The Incredible Infrared Head. The mutation that gave him the ability to see infrared most likely affected his… A) Primary visual cortex. B) ganglion cells. C) biopolar cells. D) photodiesterase (PDE) E) visual pigments (like rhodopsin) in the membranous discs of the photoreceptors. 20) Which is a true statement about M-type (mango) ganglion cells? A) They are smaller in size than P-type (parvo) ganglion cells. B) They have smaller receptive fields than P-type (parvo) ganglion cells. C) They adapt slower than P-type (parvo) ganglion cells. D) They are mostly involved in detecting size and shape of objects. E) All of the above are true. 21) Which of the following is a true statement? A) Horizontal cells transmit info from bipolar cells to neighboring ganglion cells. B) Some photoreceptors depolarize in the dark and some depolarize in the light. C) A photoreceptor in the light will release neurotransmitter onto an ON-bipolar cell. D) Neurotransmitter from photoreceptors causes ON-bipolar cells to release neurotransmitter. E) In the light, photoreceptors are hyperpolarized and ON-bipolar cells are depolarized. 22) Which of the following is a true statement? A) All of the visual information from the right eye goes to the left primary visual cortex. B) Light coming from the left visual field strikes the nasal retinal of the right eye. C) The optic chiasm is where color and black and white information are separated. D) Simple cells respond best to bars of light in a specific orientation. E) Simple cells receive input directly from photoreceptors aligned in a row. 23) True or False? A person with damage to Broca’s area would have a hard time understanding spoken words but would be able to communicate through speech just fine. A) True B) False 24) Which of the following is a true statement? A) High frequency sounds cause movement in the “floppy” part of the basilar membrane. B) The tectorial membrane is a rigid structure that hair cells are pushed against. C) When a hair cell stereocilia is bent, channels are opened and K+ leaves the cell. D) All of the above are true. E) None of the above is true. 25) Which of the following is a true statement? A) The outer ear consists of the pinna, tympanic membrane and ossicles. B) The ossicles act as levers to amplify the movement of membranes caused by sound waves. C) The tympanic membrane is smaller in area than the oval window. D) All of the above are true. E) None of the above is true. 26) The attenuation reflex … A) is caused by the contracting of two small muscles attached to ossicles. B) amplifies sound from loud noises. C) dampens high frequency sounds better than low frequency sounds. D) All of the above. E) None of the above is true. 27) True or False? Typically light must first pass through ganglion and bipolar cells before hitting photoreceptors. A) True B) False (Adapted from a question by Nakeisha Dreher) 28) If a person has a stroke which destroys their thalamus which sense would be left most intact? A) Vision. B) Touch. C) Smell. D) Taste. E) Being able to see dead people (Crikey, don’t pick this one!). Short answer questions 29) Willy Wonka’s Bitter-sweet Chocolate Morsels were losing business to a competitor’s new Savory Salt and Vinegar potato chips. Wonka ingeniously added a secret chemical to all his chocolates that only affected the salt and sour taste pathways, knocking them out for the life of the taste receptor cells. A) (6 pts) How would you speculate that this secret chemical works to abolish salt and sour taste sensations? B) (3 pts) Will the people who eat the secret chemical lose their taste of salt and sour forever? Explain. 30) (6 pts) Nikki goes to her favorite Chinese restaurant takes a bite of her sweet and sour chicken. Of the two tastes she notices that the sour taste hits her first but the sweet taste lasts longer. Explain why this is. 31) (4 pts) Given that light pattern A. causes a ganglion cell to fire best, order the following light patterns (from best to worst) in terms of their ability to stimulate the same ganglion cell. A 1) ______ 2) ______ 3) ______ 4) ______ A. (fires best lit like this) B C. D E 5) ______ 32) (5 pts) Explain in detail how light hitting a photoreceptor causes it to hyperpolarize. 33) (5 pts) Emily is born with no pinna on the sides of her head. How will this effect the way she localizes where sound comes from? 34) (4 pts) If you only have about five basic tastes how is it possible that you can taste more than five flavors? 35) (5 pts) What would happen to the senses of taste, smell, hearing and vision if a person somehow lost the functionality of G-proteins for these senses? Extra credit (4 pts) Johnny has a genetic defect that results in him having an abnormally low amount of olfactory support cells. Identify ways in which this would make Johnny different from “normal” people.