Exposure of a female rat to highly stressful experiences late in pregnancy has what
effect on the development of her male offspring?
a. They develop a female anatomy, although their behavior is the same as other males.
b. They respond sexually to male partners, although their anatomy is the same as other
males.
c. Their sexual anatomy and behavior are typically male, but their nonsexual behaviors
resemble females.
d. They resemble females in all regards, including anatomy, sexual and nonsexual
behaviors.
Which of the following are presented in the correct order when describing some of the
structures that sound waves travel through as they pass from the outer ear to the inner
ear?
a. pinna, tympanic membrane, oval window, cochlea
b. tympanic membrane, pinna, cochlea
c. pinna, stapes, eardrum
d. malleus, tympanic membrane, oval window, pinna
When Penfield stimulated the temporal cortex of alert and awake brain surgery patients,
he found that they:
a. went into spastic convulsions.
b. remembered specific events from earlier in their lives in great detail.
c. lost all memory for events during and shortly preceding the stimulation.
d. had a dream-like experience.
Which of the following specialists is MOST likely to hold a medical degree?
a. behavioral neuroscientist
b. neurologist
c. biopsychologist
d. neuropsychologist
The EEG record for REM sleep is most similar to which other sleep stage?
a. stage 1
b. stage 2
c. stage 3
d. stage 4
After damage to the preoptic area, an animal:
a. eats a great deal and gains weight.
b. stops eating.
c. fails to sweat when overheating, but still shivers when cold.
d. fails to shiver and sweat sufficiently.
Which parts of the brain deteriorate most strongly in Huntington’s disease?
a. Pathways of neurons containing the neurotransmitter dopamine
b. The cerebellum and medulla
c. The caudate nucleus, putamen, and globus pallidus
d. The hippocampus and amygdala
What happens when blood levels of insulin are extremely low?
a. Glucose leaves the blood to be stored as fat.
b. Appetite is low.
c. There is excess glucose in the blood, but it cannot enter the cells.
d. The brain shifts to proteins as its main source of fuel.
The ____ explanation calls attention to features left over from ancestors that serve little
or no function in descendants.
a. otogenetic
b. physiological
c. evolutionary
d. biological
Which of the following occurs as a normal night’s sleep progresses?
a. Stage 4 and REM both increase.
b. Stage 4 and REM both decrease.
c. Stage 4 increases, while REM decreases.
d. Stage 4 decreases, while REM increases.
The cell bodies of sensory neurons that are in clusters of neurons outside the spinal cord
are called:
a. sensory nuclei
b. sensory clusters
c. ventral root ganglia
d. dorsal root ganglia
Compared to passive transport, the major disadvantage of active transport is that it:
a. cannot transport chemicals out of the brain.
b. requires expenditure of energy.
c. transports glucose into the brain.
d. transports viruses into the brain.
If you were to accidentally touch a hot stove with your hand, you would quickly pull
your hand away. The information carried to the muscles in your arm to make them
contract was carried by:
a. efferent neurons.
b. afferent neurons.
c. intrinsic neurons.
d. sensory neurons.
Mice that lack orexin have difficulty:
a. breathing at night.
b. maintaining wakefulness.
c. sleeping.
d. waking up.
Short-term memory may be characterized as:
a. having a limited capacity.
b. having an unlimited capacity.
c. elaborative in nature.
d. rehearsal free.
Leukocytes identify intruder cells by their:
a. shape.
b. chromosomal pattern.
c. rate of cell division.
d. surface proteins.
Which of the following would cause a genetic male to develop a mostly feminine
anatomy?
a. exposure to more than the usual amount of estrogen during an early sensitive period
b. exposure to more than the usual amount of testosterone during an early sensitive
period
c. a condition that prevents androgens from exerting their effects
d. excessive levels of alpha-fetoprotein in his blood
Human newborns come into the world predisposed to pay more attention to _____ than
any other stationary displays.
a. toys
b. balloons
c. faces
d. dogs
During ____, cells in the pons send messages that inhibit the motor neurons that control
the body’s large muscles.
a. wakefulness
b. REM sleep
c. NREM sleep
d. transition from wakefulness to sleep or sleep to wakefulness
Kin selection as an explanation for altruistic behavior would argue that:
a. individuals help others who help them.
b. individuals pick their mates based on how altruistic they are.
c. individuals spread their genes by helping their relatives.
d. society benefits as a whole when individuals help each other.
Gaps in the insulating material that surrounds axons are known as:
a. interpeduncular nuclei.
b. nodes of Ranvier.
c. myelin synapses.
d. presynaptic terminals.
Korsakoff’s syndrome is a disorder most often associated with damage to the:
a. dorsomedial thalamus and mamillary bodies.
b. anterior thalamus and fornix.
c. dorsomedial thalamus and hippocampus
d. anterior thalamus and mamillary bodies.
The sites at which the cell synthesizes new protein molecules are called:
a. mitochondria.
b. endoplasmic reticula.
c. ribosomes.
d. plasma membranes.
If a never pregnant female rat is left for 5-10 days with a litter of babies, she will:
a. most likely kill them.
b. initially ignore them, but eventually will become more attentive.
c. initially be attentive, but eventually will ignore them.
d. immediately respond to them as though she gave birth to them.
When the potential across a membrane reaches threshold, the sodium channels:
a. open to let sodium enter the cell rapidly.
b. close to prevent sodium from entering the cell.
c. open to let sodium exit the cell rapidly.
d. close to prevent sodium from exiting the cell.
Where would you find the dorsal root ganglia?
a. At the base of the brain
b. In the gray matter of the spinal cord
c. In the white matter of the spinal cord
d. Outside, but near, the spinal cord
What is true about cortical neurons that have become insensitive to an eye that was
sutured shut during the critical period?
a. Nothing can restore sensitivity to stimuli in that eye.
b. That eye will gradually recover after years of exposure to normal visual stimuli.
c. Some sensitivity can be recovered if the other eye is sutured shut for a few months.
d. Some sensitivity can be recovered if both eyes are sutured shut for a few months.
What will affect the speed of an action potential?
a. the strength of the stimulus
b. the time since the last action potential
c. the length of the axon
d. the resistance of the membrane
What memory task would a typical patient with Korsakoff’s syndrome be able to do
without difficulty?
a. recall the temporal order of events
b. remember someone he or she met in the past week
c. an implicit memory task
d. an explicit memory task
The ability of some women to detect slightly finer discriminations of color than other
women is most likely due to having:
a. two types of long-wavelength cones.
b. more short-wavelength cones.
c. shorter optic nerves.
d. a larger cortex.
For a normal person, which part of a night’s sleep contains the largest percentage of
stage 4 sleep?
a. early in the night
b. the middle of the night
c. toward the end of the night
d. all parts equally
Why is marijuana unlikely to interfere with breathing or heart rate?
a. Marijuana cannot cross the blood-brain barrier.
b. It is so slow acting that the brain can compensate.
c. Receptors for marijuana in those brain areas are absent.
d. Marijuana dissolves quickly and leaves the body quickly.
Analogous to lateral inhibition, when olfactory receptors are stimulated, they:
a. inhibit the activity of other receptors.
b. quickly die.
c. inhibit cell reproduction.
d. inhibit nausea.
The ability to detect motion of sounds depends on the same area of the brain that helps
detect motion of objects.
More Native American Pimas are overweight now than in the early 1900s because of a
change in which aspect of their lives?
A Diet
B Stress
C Exercise
D Education
Humans spend about one-third of their total energy maintaining body temperature.
The arcuate nucleus receives only hunger signals.
Drugs used to treat Alzheimer’s disease affect activity of the cortex by enhancing the
effects of acetylcholine.
Estrogens are present only in females.
Long-term potentiation produces a long-term enhancement of glutamate responses at
A AMPA synapses.
B NMDA synapses.
C both AMPA and NMDA synapses.
D neither AMPA nor NMDA synapses.
Define denervation supersensitivity.
The elbow is more distal to the shoulder than the hand.
List the two major categories of careers related to biological psychology.
The cingulate cortex becomes more reactive in response to the emotional aspect of pain.
Give some examples of evolutionary interpretations of mating behavior.
Answer:
Answers will vary.
Provide three explanations for why we sleep.
Estradiol does not contribute to female development.
Describe three mechanisms we have for increasing our body temperature.
Pain axons release what two neurotransmitters in the spinal cord?
Spatial summation is the result of synaptic inputs from different locations arriving at the
same time.
Describe the reasons for animal research.
Answer:
Answers will vary.
Brains of male homosexuals are completely identical to brains of female heterosexuals.