Shreyas Gupta - Brain Bee 2021 

Brain Bee 2020 Season 

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Structure of A Neuron 

 
 
Nodes of Ranvier​ are microscopic gaps found within myelinated axons. Their function is to speed up 
propagation of action potentials along the axon via saltatory conduction. 
 
 
Chapter 1: Brain Basics 
1. The​ Corpus Callosum​ is a large bundle of nerves that connects both hemispheres of the brain 
2. The ​Cerebral Cortex​ is a deeply folded layer of nerve tissue that makes up the Surface of the 
cerebrum.w 
3. The Frontal Lobes are at the forefront of the brain directly above the eyes. 
a. The frontal lobe is responsible for : Voluntary Movement 
b. Speech 
c. Memory 
Shreyas Gupta - Brain Bee 2021 

d. Emotions 
e. Planning 
f. Problem Solving 
g. Many Aspects of Personality 
4. The Parietal lobe is located at the top of the brain immediately behind the Frontal Lobes and 
control many sensory aspects of your body 
a. They integrate sensory signals from the skin 
b. Process taste 
c. And process some types of visual information 
5. The Temporal Lobes are located on the sides of the Brain 
a. They carry out any sort of visual processing 
b. They also interpret most auditory signals 
6. The Hippocampus is located directly under the cerebral cortex and located in the Temporal 
Lobes 
a. It carries out the job of encoding new memories 
7. The amygdala is another part of the temporal lobes 
a. The amygdala integrates memory and emotion 
8.  
 
 
Chapter 2: Senses and Perception 
1. Vision​ uses up 30% of the the cerebral cortex 
2. Light passes through c​ ornea​ and enters the eye through the pupil 
- The​ Iris​ is used to regulate the amount of light that comes through the eyes by 
dilating the pupil 
- The lens of the eye then bends the light to focus it on the inner surface of your eyeball 
on to a sheet of cells called the ​retina 
3. All things projected on the 2- dimensional plane are mapped on the opposite side, for 
example anything on the right side will be mapped on the left and everything on the top will 
be mapped on the bottom and vice versa. 
4. Info traveled through ​optic nerve 
5. The retina is comprised of the 3 neurons 
- Photoreceptors (Rods & Cones) 
- Peripheral layer of the retina (Light Reaches Last) 
- Convert light into electric signals (​transduction​) 
- Interneurons 
- Relays info from pR 
- Ganglion Cells 
- Relays info from pR 
Shreyas Gupta - Brain Bee 2021 

- Forms the Optic nerve 

6. Fovea​ is a densely packed area of pR and can resolve very fine details 
7. Macula​ is the next densely packed area of pR and is mainly used for reading and driving 
8. Macular degeneration is the leading cause of blindness in US of ppl 55 or older 
9. In the center of the eye each ganglion cell receives one input or very few inputs from a 
photoreceptor, while ganglion cells on the outside receive multiple inputs. 
10. Where the fibers from both eyes converge into 1 point is called the o​ ptic chiasm 
11. The ​Primary visual cortex i​ s located in the back of occipital lobe and is a very thin sheet no 
larger than the size of a half-dollar 
- Consists of many densely packed cells 
- Middle layer receives messages from thalamus 
12. Dorsal Stream​ - proposed to be involved in the guidance of actions and recognizing where 
objects are in space 
13. Strabismus​ - A conditions where a person has crossed eyed and lacks depth perception 
 
 
1. Hearing begins when the sound reaches the pinnae( the external part of the eardrum) 
2. These vibrations hit the eardrum (tympanic membrane) and cause tiny vibrations  
3. Bone Sound Amplifiers 
- malleus(hammer) 
- incus(anvil) 
- stapes(stirrup) 
4. Stapes act like a tiny piston 
5.   
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Shreyas Gupta - Brain Bee 2021 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Chapter 3 : Movement 
Voluntary Movement 
- Uses e​ xtensors​ and​ flexors a​ nd the contraction of one causes the relaxation of the other 
- Agonists Starts the reactions 
- Antagonists stop the reaction 
- Agonists​ and A ​ ntagonists ​contracting together is called co-contraction 
- All muscle fibers are controlled by a ​alpha motor neuron 
- Located in the in the Spinal cord or brain 
- Can control hundreds of muscle fibers 
- Alpha Motor Neuron + Muscle Fibers = ​Motor Unit 
- AlS​ is cause when the connection between the nervous system and the skeletal muscles die 
Involuntary Movement 
- AKA ‘reflexes’ 
- These movements happen without the thought or consciousness of the brain. 
- For example the ​Knee Jerk​ is caused when the extensor muscle is hit asn the ​spindles​ contract 
of the extensor muscle and the flexor muscle relaxes its spindles causing your leg to jerk out 
forward. 
Motor Cortex​ - Controls Motor Units 
Parkinson's Diseas​e - degeneration of the substantia nigra, which relays signals using dopamine 
which is a key chemical in motor control (aknesia) 
Huntington's Diseas​e - Caused by the loss of inhibitory neurons in the basal ganglia, which 
eliminates the suppression of random involuntary movements. 
 
Shreyas Gupta - Brain Bee 2021 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Chapter 4 - Learning, Memory, and Emotions 
Declarative Memory  
Semantic memories  
Episodic memories 
synaptic plasticity 
long-term potentiation 
Nondeclarative memory 
working memory 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Shreyas Gupta - Brain Bee 2021 

 
Chapter 11 - Childhood Disorders 
Autism​ - A genetic disorder where it affects how a person acts and interacts with others, 
communicates, and learns. 
Autism can also be seen as an upside, as many people with the genetic disorder think of it as a helper 
more than a hinderer. Because of this rare mutation many think 
- Includes OCD and ADHD 
- Rare Mutations in FMR1 gene(fragile X Mental Retardation Protein) 
- PTEN, which is a code for a tumor suppressor protein (regulates if cells divide to fat) 
- TSC1/TSC2 ( Tuberous Sclerosis Complex 1 &2, Regulates Cell Growth) 
- Caused by unusual cellular development in the cerebral cortex 
- Ppl with mutations in these genes will have ASD to 
- 50/60% of ppl that have Fragile X Syndrome have ASD 
- 40% with TSC have ASD 
- 10% of ppl with NF-1 (TUMOR DISEASE) have ASD 
- Can be treated with drugs from M-Tor Pathway 
- No Biomarkers for Autism 
 
Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder​ - a disorder where the person has trouble paying attention , 
hyperactivity, and impulsive disorders 
- 11% of kids are diagnosed and 30% of there disease continue to adulthood 
- Higher Risk of Suicide 
- Low birthweight 
- Exposure to lead 
- Early age Adversity 
- Different Structure of Brian Cells 
- Unusual activity in brain cells that release dopamine 
- Medications 
- Methylphenidate 
 
Down Syndrome -​ a condition in which a person has an extra chromosome. 
- Have an extra copy of all of part of the 21st chromosome 
- People with this genetic disorder will have an 3 copies of chromosome 21 instead of 2 
- The ‘Trisomy of this ‘ chromosome will not be found in every cell 
- Called ‘Mosaicism’ 
- 250 thousand people have down syndrome 
- Mothers older than 40 have an 8.5 times higher chance of having kids with Ds than 
mothers who are 24 
- Have disfigured bodies or faces 
Shreyas Gupta - Brain Bee 2021 

- Can lead to Alzeihmers at age of 50 

 
 
Dyslexia​ - a learning disorder that involves difficulty reading due to problems identifying speech 
sounds and learning how they relate to letters and words 
- 15/20% of Americans have this disorder 
- Affects left side of the brain called the ‘Word Form Area’ 
- Ppl with the disorder show less activity in the left occipitotemporal cortex 
- Twin has a 50-70 percent chance of having the disorder to 
 
Epilepsy​ - A disorder in which nerve cell activity in the brain is disturbed, causing seizures​. 
- Come from greek word meaning to seize, attack, or take hold of 
- Affects 1.8% of adults 
- Seizures can last up to 5 minutes 
- Generalized seizures affect both sides of the brain 
- Petit Mal seizures (Cause rapid eye blinking) 
- Grand Mal seizures (SPACES PPL OUT) 
- Focal Seizures are localized in a certain part of the brain 
- Leaves people confused 
- Secondary Generalized Seizures Begin in one part of the brain and spread to the rest parts 
- Most cases of epilepsy 
- Causes 
- Premature Birth 
- Brain Trauma 
- Abnormal Development 
- Cures 
- Eating a Ketogenic diet 
- Surgery 
- Split Brain Procedure (Cuts Corpus Callosum) 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Shreyas Gupta - Brain Bee 2021 

Everything highlighted is what I have done as of 6/5/2020 

 
 
Chapter 10 - The Body in Balance 
Circadian Rhythm- The Body’s internal Clock 
- Daily rhythms are coordinated by the Suprachiasmatic Nucleus 
- Tiny group of neurons in the hypothalamus 
- Emits steady stream of action potentials 
- Tracks what time it is based on signals form Pr 
- PVN 
- Sends signals to the body's organs 
- SCN 
- Neurons Included in the SCN act like the metronome to the rest of the body 
- They emit a steady stream of action potentials during the day and become quiet 
during the night 
- Also Tracks times through light emissions into the retina 
 
SCN & PVN   
- These signals keep all the body’s clocks synchronized to the same 24-hour cycle. Coordinated 
body clocks enable your body’s physiological systems to work together at the right times.  
- 1) Levels of the stress hormone cortisol peak in the blood, releasing sugars from 
storage and increasing appetite 
- 2) Core body temperature begins to drift upwards, raising your body’s metabolic rate. 
These events, synchronized with others, prepare your body for a new day’s activity.  
  
 
Neurons can quickly deliver the brain’s messages to precise targets in the body. Hormones, on the 
other hand, deliver messages more slowly but can affect a larger set of tissues, producing large scale 
changes in metabolism, growth, and behavior. The brain is one of the tissues that “listens” for 
hormonal signals — neurons throughout the brain are studded with hormone receptors — and the 
brain’s responses play an important part in regulating hormone secretion and changing behaviors to 
keep the body systems in the brain. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Shreyas Gupta - Brain Bee 2021 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Chapter 4 - Learning, Memory & Emotions 
Declarative Memory - Memory for Facts, Data, and Events 
- Semantic: cultural knowledge, ideas, and concepts 
- Definitions 
- City Capitals 
- Arithmetic 
- Historical Events 
- Episodic: Personal Experiences 
- Sights 
- Sounds 
- Space 
- Emotions 
- Amygdala: Modulates Experiences listed above 
- Greek word for almond, since shaped like 2 almonds 
- Also Modulates “flight or fight” responses 
- Parahippocampal & Hippocampal 
- Aids in the encoding of ‘what’ of episodic memories 
- Working memory 
- A type of memory that allows you to hold the phone number 
- Or an image 
- For a short period of time 
Shreyas Gupta - Brain Bee 2021 

- Spatial Memory 
- Holds specific type of memories 
- Like navigational memories 
- Controlled by place cells 
Nondeclarative Memory - memories that are stored and retrieved without conscious effort 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Alzheimer's Disease - beta 3 amyloids  
 
 
 
 
 
Cortexs 
Gyruses and sulcus 
Lobes 
 
 
Forebrain -  
 
Midbrain -  
 
Hindbrain -  
- Cerebellum 
- Pons 
- Medulla