Chapter Three Biological Aspects of Psychology

1. Chapter ThreeBiological Aspects of Psychology

2. Question • ___________ play(s) an important role in speeding up the action potential as it moves through a neuron. • Glia • Myelin • Mitochondria • The soma

3. Answer • Choice b is correct. • Myelin is a fatty substance that wraps around some axons and speeds action potentials. (Chapter 3, Action Potentials section)

4. Question • Communication between neurons in your central nervous system could NOT occur without which of the following chemical messengers? • Schwann cells • Neurotransmitters • Synapses • Oligodendrites

5. Answer • Choice b is correct. • Neurotransmitters are chemicals released by one neuron that bind to receptors on a second neuron. Neurotransmitters are chemical messengers that instruct the second neuron to fire or not to fire an action potential. (Chapter 3, Synapses and Communication Between Neurons section)

6. Question • Which of the following answer choices correctly summarizes the sequence of structures through which a message travels within a single neuron? • Dendrite, axon, cell body, synapse • Cell body, dendrite, axon, synapse • Axon, synapse, cell body, dendrite • Dendrite, cell body, axon, synapse

7. Answer • Choice d is correct. • An action potential moves through a single neuron in this order: dendrite, cell body, axon, synapse. (Chapter 3, Synapses and Communication Between Neurons section)

8. Question • If the fire alarm were to go off in the classroom right now, your jumpy reaction to this stimulus would be mediated by the activity of the __________. • parasympathetic nervous system • sympathetic nervous system • corpus callosum • hippocampus

9. Answer • Choice b is correct. • The sympathetic division of the autonomic nervous system readies your body for action in the face of stress. It is said to mediate the body’s fight-or-flight response. (Chapter 3, The Autonomic Nervous System section)

10. Question • Your cousin fell off his bike and injured his head. At the hospital, the doctors decide to use a brain imaging technique that involves the injection of a tiny, harmless amount of radioactively tagged glucose. Your aunt asks you what this technique is called. You tell her that it’s called a(n) __________. • MRI • fMRI • PET scan • EEG

11. Answer • Choice c is correct. • A PET scan can measure brain activity by recording where glucose becomes concentrated after being made radioactive and injected into the bloodstream. (Chapter 3, The Brain section)

12. Question • Your father is a police officer. You wonder why he often asks drivers that he pulls over to walk a straight line. He tells you that alcohol impairs walking and other well-rehearsed motor skills. He also mentions that these skills are managed by the functioning of the __________. • midbrain • cerebellum • reticular formation • medulla

13. Answer • Choice b is correct. • The cerebellum is the part of the hindbrain that controls finely coordinated movements. It is in charge of muscle movement coordination and balance. It is also one of the first areas impaired by the intake of alcohol. (Chapter 3, The Hindbrain section)

14. Question • Chicago’s O’Hare airport is a major airline hub in the Midwest. Many airplanes are routed through O’Hare on their way to other destinations around the United States. The ________ is like O’Hare, in that sensory information is routed through it as that information makes its way to other destinations in the brain. • thalamus • hypothalamus • reticular formation • amygdala

15. Answer • Choice a is correct. • The thalamus serves as a relay center for sensory information for every sense other than smell. It sends this sensory information on to higher brain areas. (Chapter 3, The Forebrain section)

16. Question • Who am I? I am the brain structure in charge of helping you form new memories. I am likely damaged in individuals like the protagonist in Memento and Dory in Finding Nemo. I am the __________. • amygdala • hippocampus • hypothalamus • basal ganglia

17. Answer • Choice b is correct. • The hippocampus is a forebrain structure that plays an important role in the formation of new memories. Patients with damage to the hippocampus often cannot form new memories, a condition referred to as anterograde amnesia. (Chapter 3, The Forebrain section)

18. Question • Which of the following choices shows the correct matching of lobe of the cortex with the specialized function of that cortical area? • frontal – motor cortex; parietal – somatosensory cortex • frontal – somatosensory cortex; parietal – motor cortex • occipital – motor cortex; frontal – somatosensory cortex • parietal – motor cortex; occipital – somatosensory cortex

19. Answer • Choice a is correct. • The frontal lobe contains the motor cortex that controls voluntary movements in specific parts of the body. The parietal lobe contains the somatosensory cortex that receives skin sensations from the body. (Chapter 3, The Cerebral Cortex section)

20. Question • Split-brain studies highlight the role of the _________ in integrating information between the two cerebral hemispheres. • optic chiasm • association cortex • gyri • corpus callosum

21. Answer • Choice d is correct. • Split-brain patients have had their corpus callosum cut as a treatment of last resort for epilepsy. This surgical procedure isolates the two hemispheres from each other because the corpus callosum “bridge” between the two hemispheres is no longer present. (Chapter 3, The Divided Brain in a Unified Self section)

22. Question • Deficits in which neurotransmitter are seen in patients with Alzheimer’s disease? • Serotonin • GABA • Dopamine • Acetylcholine

23. Answer • Choice d is correct. • In Alzheimer’s disease, there is a nearly complete loss of cholinergic neurons (neurons that use acetylcholine) in a nucleus in the forebrain that sends fibers to the cerebral cortex and hippocampus. (Chapter 3, Three Classes of Neurotransmitters section)

24. Question • A friend informs you that she is currently taking an anti-depressant medication to help with her mood symptoms. She specifically tells you that the medication is Zoloft. Given this information, you inform her that Zoloft affects __________ levels in the brain. • acetylcholine • norepinephrine • serotonin • GABA

25. Answer • Choice c is correct. • Anti-depressant medications such as Prozac, Zoloft, and Paxil appear to relieve some of the symptoms of depression by acting on serotonin systems to maintain optimal levels of this neurotransmitter. These medications belong to a class of drugs known as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs). (Chapter 3, Three Classes of Neurotransmitters section)

26. Question • The endocrine system consists of _________, which secrete chemicals known as __________. • muscles; gonadotropins • neurotransmitters; glands • glands; hormones • papillae; cerebrospinal fluid

27. Answer • Choice c is correct. • The endocrine system consists of cells that form organs called glands. Glands secrete chemicals known as hormones. Well-known hormones include estrogen, androgen, and cortisol. (Chapter 3, The Endocrine System: Coordinating the Internal World section)