Essentials of Neuroscience
1. Elizabeth suffers from severe muscle weakness. She finds it difficult to move her facial muscles, and the simplest facial movements involve a lot of effort. She was told she suffers from a disease characterized by a reduced effectiveness of released ACh and frequent failure of neuromuscular transmission.
a) What is the role of ACh at the neuromuscular junction? Describe the resulting electrical changes in the muscle.
b) Elizabeth’s doctors believe his disease is an autoimmune disorder because it targets acetylcholine receptors at the neuromuscular junction? What happens to the ACh if this is the case?
c) Propose a treatment option for Elizabeth and describe how and why you think this treatment would work- do not provide a description of existing drugs. Explain what a drug should do to help this condition.
d) What targets other than the receptor might be affected by an autoimmune disorder that might have similar effects?
2. Explain what region of the brain you believe is involved for each set of symptoms and why?
a) Ataxic, uncoordinated gait (walking stride). Muscle movements are not smooth but occur as one joint moving at a time.
b) Halting in the gait-person has long pauses before being able to initiate a step forward. Ability to reach out and grasp objects is hesitant, and slow to begin.
c) Complete loss of movement in the contralateral arm.
d. Sudden uncontrolled movements of the limbs. Overexagerated and inaccurate movements when attempting a task,
3. a) How do people reach to a highly embarrassing situation? What happens in the body?
b) If a person manages to avoid that embarrassing situation and feel relieved, now what is happening in the body?
c) Discuss how the hypothalamus, sympathetic, and parasympathetic divisions of the ANS play major roles in this response pattern.
4. Robert was hiking in the mountains with his friends when they were caught in a snow storm. James was stranded on an exposed slope all night. His body was cold, and depleted of energy.
a) What happens when the body is cold, and depleted of energy?
b) What is fastest correction of this disturbance of homeostasis? How is warmth generated through
movement?
c) Give examples of motivated behaviors generated by the somatic motor system in this case.
5. Susan has constantly craved food since she was 7 years old. She gained weight fast and has trouble breathing. She was found to also have a very slow rate of metabolism.
a) What do you think her problem may be- be specific.
b) Suggest a treatment option for this disorder.
c) How would this treatment contribute to helping these disorders. Be as specific as possible.
6. Explain why damage to the lateral hypothalamus lead to anorexia?.
7. Discuss the case of S.M., who had bilateral destruction of the amygdala resulting from Urbach-Wiethe disease. She had normal intelligence and was perfectly able to identify people from photographs.
However, she had difficulty in recognizing certain emotions expressed by people in the photographs. When asked to categorize the emotion expressed in a person’s face, she normally described happiness, sadness, and disgust.
She was somewhat less likely to describe an angry expression as angry, and the most abnormal response was that she was much less likely to describe a fearful expression as reflective of the person being afraid. She clearly demonstrated a decreased ability to recognize fear from visual input alone.
a) What is the relationship between lesions in the amygdala and the response to emotions of fear and anger?
b) What so you expect the amygdala activation to be when viewing fearful, happy, and neutral facial expressions? Why?
c) What happens when an intact amygdala in animal models is electrically stimulated?
8. Design your humanoid (you are working with artificial humans that have all the same physical/physiological characteristics of real humans) zombie. This zombie should be able to be commanded (compliant), aggressive, fearful, and fearless as necessary. Explain how your system would work, and be provide detail as to the systems manipulated and why.
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