As a general rule, where do axons convey information?
a. toward dendrites of their own cell
b. toward their own cell body
c. away from their own cell body
d. to surrounding glia
People suffering from seasonal affective disorder are most likely become depressed in
the:
a. days after any holiday.
b. fall.
c. winter.
d. spring.
Which of the following would result in an increase in body weight?
a. chronically low insulin levels
b. damage to the paraventricular nucleus
c. damage to the lateral hypothalamus
d. stimulation of the ventromedial hypothalamus
People born without a corpus callosum can compensate for a lack of corpus callosum
because of the extra development of the:
a. commissures
b. thalamus
c. brainstem
d. fornix
Why do neurons rely so heavily on glucose as their source of nutrition?
a. Neurons lack the enzymes necessary to metabolize other fuels.
b. Glucose is the only fuel that can be used even in the absence of vitamins.
c. Glucose is not used extensively by other parts of the body.
d. Other fuels do not readily cross the blood-brain barrier.
What neurotransmitter is released by axons that carry pain information to the brain?
a. dopamine
b. serotonin
c. substance P
d. encephalin
A promising therapy for lazy eye is to ask a child to play ____ that require attention to
both eyes.
a. action video games
b. board games
c. sports
d. with crayons
What does a coral goby fish do if its mate dies after eggs have been laid?
a. A male will abandon the eggs and find a new mate.
b. A female will care for her young and then die.
c. Either sex will care for the eggs and, if necessary, change sex to form a new mating
pair.
d. Either sex will abandon the eggs to find a new mate.
The risk of having part of the brain unprotected by the blood-brain barrier is that:
a. it is invisible to brain imaging techniques.
b. it takes longer for drugs to work.
c. viruses or toxic chemicals are more likely to damage it.
d. the blood is poorly oxygenated.
Seeing a snake come out of the drain in the bathtub might increase your heart rate,
dilate your pupils, cause you to sweat, and raise the hair on your neck. These responses
are due to the activity of the _____ nervous system.
a. sympathetic
b. parasympathetic
c. somatic
d. motor
For schizophrenics, atypical antipsychotics are more effective than typical
antipsychotics in:
a. reducing positive symptoms.
b. reducing negative symptoms.
c. increasing negative symptoms.
d. blocking glutamate receptors.
Which of the following is more common during REM sleep than during NREM sleep?
a. sleep talking
b. sleepwalking
c. nightmares
d. night terrors
St. John’s wort works the same way as the:
a. iproniazids.
b. tricyclics.
c. MAOIs
d. SSRIs.
What is one impediment to regeneration of axons in the mammalian central nervous
system?
a. Inhibitory chemicals secreted by the damaged portion of the axon
b. Bacterial infections caused by the decaying tissue
c. Glia release chemicals that inhibit axon growth
d. Inhibitory messages sent from the cell nucleus when an axon is damaged
Which two factors affect the speed of an action potential?
a. the strength and frequency of the stimulus
b. the location of the cell body and the length of the axon
c. the length and diameter of the axon
d. the presence of myelin and the diameter of the axon
It is believed that exposure to herbicides and pesticides is:
a. the primary cause of Parkinson’s disease.
b. a contributing factor in some cases of Huntington’s disease.
c. the primary cause of myasthenia gravis.
d. a contributing factor in some cases of Parkinson’s disease.
Damage to the ventromedial hypothalamus leads to eating:
a. the same, but drinking less than normal amounts.
b. the same large amount each meal, regardless of the taste.
c. less.
d. normal-sized meals, but eating them more frequently.
Structures formed from degenerating neuronal cell bodies are called:
a. tau proteins.
b. amyloid beta proteins.
c. tangles.
d. confabulations.
Most young mammals stop nursing, at least partly, due to the loss of what ability?
a. metabolizing the sugar in milk
b. sucking sufficiently
c. the Babinski reflex
d. digesting the fat in milk
____ signals the brain about the body’s fat reserves, providing a long-term indicator of
whether meals have been too large or too small.
a. Renin
b. Insulin
c. Leptin
d. Glucagon
Lashley found that a deep cut in a rat’s cerebral cortex completely eliminated the effects
of learning under what circumstances, if any?
a. if the cut was made after the learning
b. if the learned task was simple
c. if the learned task was complex
d. under none of the circumstances he studied
An advantage of bright light therapy for SAD, as compared to other antidepressant
treatments, is that bright light therapy:
a. is highly effective without apparent side effects.
b. produces a permanent cure after one or two treatments.
c. is well understood theoretically.
d. is financially supported by several drug companies.
Childhood-onset schizophrenia is:
a. quite common.
b. associated with identifiable genetic abnormalities.
c. just like schizophrenia in adults.
d. usually of brief duration.
Vasopressin and angiotensin II are similar in that they both promote:
a. increased urination.
b. decreased thirst.
c. decreased blood pressure.
d. increased blood pressure.
A functional explanation of why giraffes have such long necks is that:
a. it lowers the blood pressure in their brains.
b. their necks became longer because they stretched them.
c. it allows them greater access to their food supply.
d. parent giraffes make their babies reach for food.
A drug that produces excitement, alertness, elevated mood, and decreased fatigue is
referred to as a:
a. stimulant.
b. depressant.
c. hallucinogen.
d. tranquilizer.
Which of the following would most likely be able to accurately detect facial expression
of emotions?
a. patients with left-hemisphere damage
b. patients with prefrontal cortex damage
c. patients with right-hemisphere damage
d. patients with damage to the amygdala
In comparison to cones, rods:
a. are more common toward the center of the retina.
b. are more sensitive to detail.
c. are more sensitive to dim light.
d. reach their peak firing levels slowly.
The retinas of predatory birds such as hawks:
a. have no discernible fovea.
b. have a greater density of receptors than do humans on the top half of the retina.
c. have a greater density of receptors than do humans on the bottom half of the retina.
d. are virtually indistinguishable from the retinas of humans.
What kind of thirst is produced by an increased concentration of solutes in the blood?
a. Postprandial
b. Hypovolemic
c. Non-homeostatic
d. Osmotic
In many instances, spatial neglect appears to be linked to ____ problems.
a. cognitive
b. motor
c. attention
d. sensory
Alzheimer’s is associated with brain damage as a result of:
a. loss of the fibers connecting the substantia nigra to the basal ganglia.
b. loss of cell bodies in the dorsomedial thalamus.
c. tangles and plaques in the cerebral cortex and hippocampus.
d. an epileptic focus in the temporal lobe of the cortex.
Blood cells that attach to types of tumor cells and cells infected with viruses are known
as:
a. B cells.
b. T cells.
c. cytotoxic T cells.
d. natural killer cells.