Chapter 1

Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
1. What do you think would happen if the elastic fibers in tissues were distensible but not elastic?
2. Predict what would happen if the tight junctions in blood vessels were not functional.
3. Predict the consequences if the desmosomes in the outer layer of the skin were not functional.
4. Certain medical conditions cause the simple squamous epithelium in the lung to thicken. Predict the
consequences of this thickening.
5. As we age, the stratified squamous epithelium of the skin becomes progressively thinner. Explain why this
tends to result in a greater number of skin lacerations (cuts) in the elderly.
6. Explain what might happen if a genetic mutation caused a person’s digestive tract to have stratified columnar
epithelium instead of simple columnar epithelium.
7. Predict the effect of replacing the elastic fibers of dense regular elastic connective tissue with collagen fibers.
8. Injured hyaline cartilage is often replaced by fibrocartilage. Does fibrocartilage provide the same kind of
surface for articulation as hyaline cartilage? Why or why not?
9. What do you think would happen to bone tissue if osteoclasts were more active than osteoblasts?
10. When skeletal muscle fibers are damaged and die, they may be replaced with dense irregular collagenous
connective tissue, commonly known as scar tissue.
a. How do these two tissue types differ in structure?
b. How do they differ in function?
c. Predict the impact of such an injury to muscle tissue on the function of a whole skeletal muscle.
11. Predict what might happen to cardiac muscle tissue in which the intercalated discs were not functional.
12. A tumor consists of cells that divide by mitosis outside the normal controls of the cell cycle. Would you
expect tumors of nervous tissue to involve neurons, neuroglial cells, or both? Explain.
13. A hypothetical poison destroys the axon of a neuron. How will this affect the ability of the neuron to
function?
14. Predict what would happen if the organs of the respiratory tract and the stomach were lined with serous
membranes instead of mucous membranes.
15. Predict the effect of damaging the synovial membrane in a joint so that it could no longer secrete synovial
fluid.
16. During a heart attack, the blood flow to cardiac muscle tissue is blocked, and cardiac muscle cells in the
affected area generally die. Why will cardiac function rarely return to normal after this takes place?
17. Why do you think that homeless patients often have problems with wound healing?
18. Predict what would happen to the cells of the epidermis if blood vessels in the dermis constricted and
decreased blood flow for several hours.
19. Would the skin in question feel abnormally warm, abnormally cold, or show no change? Explain.
20. Burn victims often suffer damage to large portions of their integument. Predict the complications these
patients may develop. What sort of homeostatic imbalances might they experience?
Chapter 5
1. Predict what would happen to the cells of the epidermis if blood vessels in the dermis constricted and
decreased blood flow for several hours. (Hint: Where do the cells of the epidermis get their oxygen and
nutrients?)
2. Would the skin in question feel abnormally warm, abnormally cold, or show no change? Explain.
3. Burn victims often suffer damage to large portions of their integument. Predict the complications these
patients may develop. What sort of homeostatic imbalances might they experience?
4. Paper cuts often involve only the epidermis. You get a paper cut and notice that it doesn’t bleed, but you can
feel it. Explain why you can feel it but the cut isn’t bleeding.
5. A hypothetical drug causes blood vessels to grow from the dermis into the superficial stratum granulosum of
the epidermis. Would this affect the cells in the most superficial epidermal layers? Why or why not?
6. While woodworking, your friend Lily cuts her forearm with a saw. You examine the wound and see large
quantities of adipose tissue at its base. Does her wound extend down to the epidermis, dermis, or hypodermis?
How do you know?
7. Lily wants to know if the wound is likely to form a scar. The wound is located on her left anterior forearm
and cuts straight across the width of her arm. What do you tell her, and why?
8. Vitiligo is a condition characterized by death or dysfunction of scattered groups of melanocytes in the skin.
Predict how vitiligo may cause the skin to appear.
9. Max and Breanna go to the beach, and Max tells Breanna she does not need sunscreen because she is African
American and individuals with dark skin cannot get sunburns or skin cancer. What should Breanna tell him in
response?
10. A hypothetical poison prevents oxygen from binding to hemoglobin. Predict how this would affect skin
color in a fair-skinned person.
11. You are a researcher for a cosmetics company, and the company wants you to devise a product that makes
eyelashes grow longer. How could this be achieved?
12. Certain products for hair and nails contain proteins and amino acids, which the manufacturers claim are
needed by the hair shafts and nail bodies for strength. What do you make of these claims? Explain your answer.
13. Your friend just spent a day at the beach but forgot to use sunscreen. That evening she complains of a great
deal of pain and you notice that her skin is red and beginning to form large blisters. What type of burn has she
suffered? What other potential long-term damage has she done to her skin?
14. A hypothetical chemical is found to be carcinogenic when applied to cells in a tissue culture. Chemical
analysis shows that it is a water-soluble compound (hydrophilic). What type of cancer, if any, might this
chemical cause when applied to the skin? Explain your reasoning.
Chapter 6
1. Predict how the characteristics of a person’s bones would change if compact bone were located on the inside
and spongy bone on the outside.
2. Sometimes a bone is injured at the epiphyseal plate. Predict the long-term effect this might have on the
injured bone.
3. Predict the potential consequences of damaging the nutrient artery in a bone injury. How would this affect the
ability of the bone to heal?
4. The disease osteogenesis imperfecta is characterized by defective collagen in the organic matrix of bone.
Predict the effects of such a disease.
5. What would probably happen to bone with more osteoclast than osteoblast activity?
6. How does the structure of compact bone follow its function?
7. Predict what would happen if osteoclasts did not function properly during endochondral and
intramembranous ossification.
8. Predict what would happen if primary bone were not replaced by secondary bone.\
9. Malnutrition in children often leads to a decreased rate of mitosis in different cell populations. What effect
would this have on growth at the epiphyseal plate? Explain.
10. How can excessive growth hormone increase the size of bones even after the epiphyseal plates have closed?
11. A young girl develops a tumor that secretes excess estrogen. Predict the effect of this excessive secretion on
her bone growth and final height.
12. Why do you think that astronauts are often faced with decreased bone mass after returning from periods of
prolonged weightlessness?
13. Predict the effect that a parathyroid hormone–secreting tumor would have on bone tissue. What would
happen to the concentration of calcium ions in the blood with such a condition?
Chapter 7
1. Why might a fractured bone of the axial skeleton be more damaging to overall homeostasis than a fractured
bone of the appendicular skeleton?
2. Many bone abnormalities are characterized by changes in the normal structure of bone markings. Defective
openings that are smaller or larger than normal can be particularly problematic. Why do you think this is true?
3. Ms. Mayer has been brought to the emergency department after sustaining a head injury during a cycling
collision.
a. During the physical exam, you note that a clear fluid is leaking from her nose; you recognize this as
cerebrospinal fluid, the fluid surrounding the brain. Which bone has likely been fractured? Why would this
cause cerebrospinal fluid to leak from the nasal cavity? (Hint: Which bone forms part of the cranial and nasal
cavities?)
b. Ms. Mayer is reporting vision problems. An x-ray of her skull shows a fracture of the lesser wing of the
sphenoid bone. Why could this interfere with her vision?
4. Ms. Midna presents to your clinic with a complaint of pain in her face. She points to two areas, between her
eyes and inferior to her eyes over her cheeks, as the locations of greatest pain. She states that she has had a cold
for the past few days and has been unable to breathe through her nose. What is causing her pain? How and why
is it related to her cold?
5. Ms. Cho has fractured the transverse process of her fourth thoracic vertebra. She reports back pain, as well as
pain with movement such as breathing. What else was likely fractured with her vertebra? Explain. Why does
this cause pain when she breathes?
6. Tran is a 12-year-old patient who is experiencing back pain. Upon examination, you notice that his vertebral
column has a pronounced lateral curvature, along with weakness in the muscles on one side, particularly in the
thoracic region. An MRI scan of his back shows two herniated discs between T8 and T9 and T9 and T10.
a. What abnormal spinal curvature is present?
b. Are the muscle weakness and herniated discs related? Explain.
7. Predict what might happen to the stability of the elbow joint if the trochlear notch were abnormally shallow.
Explain your answer.
8. Mr. Heller presents to the emergency department following a bicycle crash during which he landed on his
shoulder. During the physical exam, you notice that his upper limb is hanging in a more medial position than
normal and he can hold it in a lateral position only with assistance. What has likely happened? Explain.
9. You are on an archaeological dig, and you find two pelvic bones that are quite well preserved. How will you
determine if the pelves are male or female?
10. Callie is a 6-year-old patient who presents with a complaint of hip pain. An x-ray reveals that her
acetabulum is abnormally shallow. How might this explain her symptoms?
Chapter 8
1. Do you think the cranial bones are joined by synarthroses, amphiarthroses, or diarthroses? Explain.
2. A surgical procedure called a fusion takes two bones and joins them, making them functionally one bone.
What functional class of joint does this resemble? What properties would the fused joint have?
3. Certain diseases cause the production of collagen that is weaker than normal. Predict how such diseases could
affect the structure and function of gomphoses.
4. What might happen if sutures were fused at birth?
5. Explain how increased motion at a synchondrosis would impair the function of the joint.
6. Certain conditions cause ligamentous laxity, which means that the ligaments are very loose. Predict how this
would affect synovial joints. Would it have the same effect on cartilaginous and fibrous joints? Why or why
not?
7. Explain why joint movement is often painful when a tendon—which is outside the joint—is injured.
8. In the condition known as drop foot, the foot and ankle are unable to dorsiflex. Predict the consequences of
this condition for walking.
9. Marfan syndrome can affect connective tissues around joints and make ligaments loose. Predict how this
might affect the range of motion of a biaxial joint.
10. Predict the consequences that an injury to each of the following ligaments would have for the function and
range of motion of the knee.
a. Anterior cruciate ligament
b. Tibial collateral ligament
c. Posterior cruciate ligament
11. Predict how the functions of the human hand would be different if the carpometacarpal joint of the thumb
were a uniaxial hinge joint instead of a saddle joint.
Chapter 10
1. Suppose that a new type of muscle tissue is discovered and, like the other types, it generates tension. Would
you expect this new tissue type to have the same basic structure as skeletal, smooth, and cardiac muscle tissues?
Why or why not?
2. Predict what might happen to a muscle cell that is distensible but not elastic. What if the reverse were true—a
muscle cell that is elastic but not distensible?
3. A hypothetical poison denatures the protein titin, making it straight instead of spring-shaped. Predict the
effect of this change on muscle tissue.
4. Predict what might happen if the thin and thick filaments were unable to move relative to one another within a
sarcomere.
5. The poison ouabain or arrow poison, blocks the Na+/K+ pump. What effect would this poison have on the
sodium and potassium ion gradients, and so on the action potentials of a muscle fiber?
6. The poison tetrodotoxin from the pufferfish blocks voltage-gated sodium ion channels in the sarcolemma.
Predict the effect of this poison on the action potentials of the muscle fiber.
7. What would happen if tetrodotoxin instead blocked voltage-gated potassium ion channels in the sarcolemma?
8. The disease myasthenia gravis results in the destruction of acetylcholine receptors on the motor end plate.
Predict the symptoms and effects of this disease.
9. Predict the effect of improperly functioning troponin that isn’t able to bind to tropomyosin.
10. Researchers discover a genetic mutation that leads to a lack of T-tubules in a person’s skeletal muscle fibers.
Predict the possible effects of such a mutation.
11. Would extra creatine phosphate likely enhance performance of activities lasting several minutes to an hour?
Explain.
12. Explain why engaging in 30–60 minutes of “aerobics” is promoted as an activity that “burns fat.” Would
you get this same “fat burning” from several 20-second sprints? Explain your answer in biochemical terms.
13. When you lift a heavy box, your muscles need to generate a stronger than average contraction. What will
happen to the timing and frequency of nerve stimulation of your muscles, and why?
14. Your friend sits with her forearm flexed 45° at the elbow. You place a weight in her hand, and she notes that
she has difficulty lifting it further. However, when she attempts to lift the weight with her forearm in a relaxed
or neutral position, she has little trouble. Explain these differing results.
15. Suppose a new type of muscle fiber is discovered that has a high concentration of myoglobin, large numbers
of mitochondria, and a well-developed blood supply. What do you think would be the primary energy source for
this new muscle fiber type? Explain your answer. Is this new type likely to be resistant to fatigue? Why or why
not?
16. Using biochemical terms, explain why lifting a stack of textbooks over and over again would likely make
you feel fatigued more quickly than repeatedly lifting a single textbook.
17. A fitness trainer advises her client to lower a weight slowly and in a controlled manner to reduce the risk of
injury. Which type of muscle contraction is being used when the weight is lowered? Explain why the trainer
advises her client to train in this manner.
18. Predict the appearance of the muscle fibers of an athlete who trains to run marathons.
19. You have finished exercising with a friend, who says that he is breathing rapidly because he must have
“used up all of his oxygen.” What do you tell him?
20. Would you expect to find motor units and recruitment in single-unit smooth muscle tissue and cardiac
muscle tissue? Why or why not?
21. Asthma is a respiratory disease involving the smooth muscle cells lining the airway passages of the lungs.
When an asthmatic response is triggered, a pathway is initiated that causes two changes in the smooth muscle
cells: (1) a release of calcium ions from the SR, and (2) increased binding of calcium ions with calmodulin.
Predict the effect this would have on the smooth muscle cells of the airways and on a person’s overall ability to
breathe. Explain your answer.
22. One of the medications used to treat asthma works by causing the formation of a compound that inactivates
myosin light-chain kinase. What effect would this medication have on smooth muscle cells? Why do you think
it would be used to treat asthma?
Chapter 9
1. Predict the name that might be assigned to a muscle that attaches to the sternum and the hyoid bone.
2. The temporalis muscle is involved in mastication, or chewing. It has attachments to the temporal bone and the
mandible. Which bone serves as the origin, and which is the insertion? Explain your answer.
3. You are trying to pry a large rock out of the soil using a lever. You have wedged one end of the lever
underneath the rock (the load), and have placed another rock underneath the lever to act as the fulcrum. You
have placed your fulcrum very close to the load that you want to move. What kind of lever system are you using
to dislodge the rock? Is your work being done at a mechanical advantage or disadvantage? Explain your answer.
4. Mr. Dawson is planning to visit his cosmetic surgeon for BOTOX injections to remove wrinkles around his
mouth and in his forehead. This treatment involves temporarily paralyzing the frontalis muscle, corrugator
supercilii muscle, and parts of the orbicularis oris muscle. Afterward, what movements will he be unable to
perform?
5. While administering the treatment, the physician accidentally injects Mr. Dawson’s buccinator and masseter
muscles. What movements will this affect? Will it affect more than facial expression? Explain.
6. Predict how contracture (abnormal shortening) of the erector spinae muscle group on the left side of the
vertebral column would affect childhood growth and posture.
7. Bruised ribs are generally caused by a traumatic blow to the chest. The most common symptom of bruised
ribs is pain with each inspiration (inhalation). Why do you think the action of inspiration causes pain to injured
ribs?
8. Normal, quiet expiration isn’t generally painful to bruised ribs. However, forced expiration, as occurs when
one coughs or sneezes, is usually quite painful. Why is the action of forced expiration, unlike quiet expiration,
painful to bruised ribs?
9. A potential consequence of shaving the acromion to repair the rotator cuff is detachment of part of the origin
of the deltoid muscle. This leads to weakening of the deltoid muscle, which can be treated with physical therapy.
What general types of exercises do you think would be helpful in strengthening this muscle? Explain your
reasoning.
10. A common activity many athletes perform in training is climbing a rope with only the hands. What are the
main muscles used to climb a rope in this manner?
11. Ms. Sadler presents with an injury that occurred during a surgical procedure that damaged her superior
gluteal nerve, which has effectively paralyzed her gluteus medius and gluteus minimus muscles. What
movements will she be unable to perform?
12. How will paralysis of the gluteus medius and gluteus minimus muscles affect Ms. Sadler when she walks?
Be specific.
13. Sydney is a gymnast who is having muscle pain in her left leg when she runs. You notice that she has pain
when her foot is plantarflexed. However, she notes no pain when her knee is flexed or extended, but she does
report pain when her foot is everted. Which muscle or muscles are potentially strained? Explain
Chapter 11
1. Imagine you have just picked up a cup of coffee. List all the sensory, integrative, and motor functions that
your nervous system is performing as you do so.
2. Injuries may damage the nerves of any motor or sensory division of the PNS. In which PNS subdivision
would a nerve injury be most threatening to survival? Explain.
3. When a pathologist performs an autopsy on a person who died of a brain injury, explain why he or she
typically finds large numbers of microglia in the brain.
4. Guillain-Barré syndrome is caused by the patient’s own immune system attacking the myelin sheath of PNS
neurons. Predict the symptoms and effects of such a disease.
5. Ms. Karabekian suffers a vertebral fracture that damages a large number of ganglia, then loses feeling in
much of her right leg. Is she likely to recover the function of these damaged neurons? Why or why not?
6. Predict the effect of the poison ouabain, which blocks Na+/K+ pumps, on the neuronal action potential.
7. What do you think would happen to the neuronal action potential if the concentration of sodium ions in the
extracellular fluid decreased significantly, to the point of reversing the gradient?
8. Sometimes when you pull your dinner out of the microwave you have to hold your fingertips to the food for a
second or two before you can tell if it is hot or cold. Explain why this happens.
9. Predict how a poison that blocks voltage-gated calcium ion channels in the axon terminal would affect
synaptic transmission.
10. A new drug opens ligand-gated calcium ion channels in the membrane of the postsynaptic neuron. Would
this produce an EPSP or an IPSP? Would this make an action potential more or less likely to occur? Why?
11. Explain how you could increase the likelihood that a certain neuron will reach threshold and have an action
potential. (Hint: Think about the different types of summation.)
12. Toxins from the cone snail block glutamate receptors in the postsynaptic membrane. What will be the effect
of these toxins?
13. Predict the effects of the poison strychnine, which blocks glycine receptors on postsynaptic neurons of the
CNS.
14. What would happen to synaptic transmission if you blocked the degradation and/or reuptake of excitatory
neurotransmitters in the synaptic cleft? What if the neurotransmitters were inhibitory?
15. Sometimes diverging circuits split into excitatory and inhibitory paths. When might such a circuit be
required?
16. Cocaine blocks the reuptake of dopamine, causing a high level of dopamine that stimulates the postsynaptic
receptors for an extended period. Explain why people who abuse cocaine eventually need more of the drug to
reach an equivalent “high.”
Chapter 12
1. In terms of survival, to which of the four divisions of the brain would an injury be most damaging? Explain.
2. In which of the four divisions of the brain might an injury cause changes in personality? Explain.
3. A person who is in a vegetative state has no activity in his or her cerebrum. Why can a person in this
condition continue living for a certain period? Can such a person feel pain or initiate voluntary movements?
Explain.
4. Predict the effects of damage to the basal nuclei or the cerebellum.
5. The condition lissencephaly is characterized by a lack of gyri and sulci in the cerebral cortex, which gives the
brain hemispheres a smooth appearance. Predict the effects of such a condition.
6. Ms. Greer sustained major head trauma in an automobile accident. She is unresponsive to sensory stimuli, and
scans of her cerebral cortex demonstrate no cortical activity. During a surgical procedure to relieve pressure on
her brain, it is discovered that she has sustained major damage to her thalamus. How does this damage explain
her symptoms?
7. You are about to take your anatomy and physiology exam and you notice that your heart is beating rapidly
and your rate of breathing has increased. What parts of the brain are responsible for these changes, and how do
they accomplish them?
8. Predict the effects of a tumor that secretes excess orexins.
9. Explain why sleepwalking and sleeptalking can occur only during non-REM sleep.
10. Mr. Jacobs suffers widespread damage to his right cerebral hemisphere. His wife believes he will be fine
because his left cerebral hemisphere is undamaged. Is his wife correct? Explain. What deficits, if any, can Mr.
Jacobs expect to face?
11. Ms. Marcos undergoes treatment for a seizure disorder that involves removal of the right and left
hippocampus. Will this affect her declarative memory, nondeclarative memory, or both? Will this remove her
old memories, impair the formation of new memories, or both?
12. The patient in question 11, Ms. Marcos, also has her right and left amygdala removed. What effect is this
likely to have?
13. A tear in the meninges may result in the leakage of CSF. Considering the functions of CSF, predict the
symptoms you would see with a CSF leak.
14. When patients are given a drug that must enter the ECF of the brain, they are sometimes infused with the
chemical mannitol. Mannitol temporarily disrupts tight junctions. How would this help deliver the drug?
15. Why are no dural sinuses present in the spinal cord?
16. Mandy is a 13-year-old patient with suspected bacterial meningitis. A resident performs a lumbar puncture
to collect a sample of CSF and sends it to the lab. However, when the lab technician examines the sample, she
finds only blood and adipocytes (fat cells), and no CSF. What has likely happened?
17. Would you expect the fingertips or the back to be represented by a greater area of the primary
somatosensory cortex? Explain.
18. A person with a spinal cord injury is experiencing loss of pain sensation in his left leg and loss of tactile
sensation in his right leg. On which side of the spinal cord is the injury located? Explain.
19. The term painkiller is used for drugs that bind to receptors for endorphins in the CNS. How do these drugs
relieve pain? Do they actually treat the cause of the pain? (Hint: Where do they bind?)
20. Predict the effects of degeneration of the globus pallidus.
21. How would degeneration of the globus pallidus differ from degeneration of the caudate nucleus, putamen,
and substantia nigra? Explain.
22. A potential effect of chronic alcohol abuse is the development of cerebellar damage. Predict the symptoms
you would likely see in a person with such a condition.
23. Ms. Nazari presents to the emergency department with loss of muscle function on the right side of her body.
The physician suspects she has suffered a stroke (a blood clot in the brain). On which side of her brain did the
stroke likely occur? Explain.
Chapter 13
1. How do a nerve and a neuron differ? Which would most affect motor or sensory function: damage to a neuron
or damage to a nerve? Explain.
2. Explain how the arrangement of axons within a nerve resembles the arrangement of muscle fibers within a
skeletal muscle.
3. To which division of the PNS would damage be most life-threatening? Explain.
4. Often when the brain is damaged, the cranial nerves are damaged as well. A simple physical exam can be
used to test clinically for the function of each cranial nerve. Damage to which cranial nerve or nerves would
lead to the following findings? Explain your answer.
a. Complete loss of taste sensation
b. Inability to move the tongue
c. Inability to move the eyes in any direction
d. Loss of balance and equilibrium
e. Inability to close the jaw
5. Drugs that stimulate the parasympathetic nervous system often lead to the adverse effect of excessive
drooling. Which cranial nerve(s) is/are involved in this effect? What would happen if the activity of these nerves
was instead inhibited?
6. Explain why damage to the spinal cord around the level of C4 or higher generally leaves a patient unable to
breathe without the assistance of mechanical ventilation.
7. Predict the symptoms (both sensory and motor) you might experience if you suffered an injury to each of the
following nerves:
a. Median nerve
b. Common fibular nerve
c. Femoral nerve
d. Sciatic nerve
e. Ulnar nerve
8. Predict what might happen if a disease caused the axons of the first-order somatic sensory neurons that
transmit proprioceptive stimuli to lose their myelin sheaths.
9. Which types of mechanoreceptors allow one to read Braille (raised dots that enable a blind person to read
text)?
10. Why is it advantageous to our survival that our thermoreceptors and nociceptors are slowly adapting?
11. Predict the effects of damage to each of the following motor neurons:
a. Upper motor neurons of the premotor cortex
b. Upper motor neurons of the primary motor cortex
c. Lower motor neurons
12. Predict the effect of damage to proprioceptors and sensory neurons that communicate with the cerebellum.
13. An experimental drug blocks the body’s muscle spindles from detecting stretch. Predict the effects of such a
drug on movement, posture, and balance.
14. Mr. Pratchett has damage to his facial nerve, but not his trigeminal nerve. What would happen to his blink
reflex? Explain.
15. Explain why a lower motor neuron disorder leads to absent or weakened simple stretch reflexes but an upper
motor neuron disorder does not.
Chapter 14
1. Certain types of peripheral neuropathy (diseases of PNS neurons) affect somatic motor neurons, whereas
others affect autonomic motor neurons. Predict the effects of autonomic neuropathy. How would autonomic
neuropathy differ from somatic motor neuron neuropathy?
2. Mrs. Black is taking a medication for high blood pressure that blocks the effects of the sympathetic nervous
system. What is likely to happen if she is faced with an emergency situation? Explain.
3. A nurse injects a patient with a drug that selectively binds to and activates α2 adrenergic receptors. What will
happen to the sympathetic nervous system response? Why? What useful applications might such a drug have?
4. If there were a drug that selectively blocked nicotinic receptors on sympathetic postganglionic neurons, the
effects observed in a patient would be similar to those of the drug administered in question 1. Explain why.
5. Mr. Nguyen is involved in an accident that destroys the sympathetic ganglia housing the neurons that
innervate his heart. However, you notice that his heart rate and blood pressure increase in response to exercise.
What is causing this increase?
6. The drug atropine, derived from the poisonous plant deadly nightshade, blocks muscarinic receptors. Predict
the effects of administering this drug.
7. Drugs that stimulate ACh release often have adverse effects, such as drooling, poor distance vision, and
diarrhea. Explain these effects, considering the functions of the parasympathetic nervous system.
8. Explain why the nervous systems of individuals with brainstem injuries generally have difficulty controlling
their autonomic functions.
9. Predict what would happen if parasympathetic tone were dominant in the airways.
Chapter 15
1. You are working in a lab when you find a bottle of unlabeled chemicals. You open the bottle and your nasal
passages immediately begin to feel as though they are burning. Your lab partner wonders what sort of “smell”
produces burning, as in what type of olfactory receptors lead to this sensation. What do you tell your partner?
2. Which structure(s) in the olfactory pathway would be most affected by a large tumor in the inferior frontal
lobe? How would this affect olfaction?
3. Explain why a tumor that destroys saliva-producing cells can interfere with taste sensation.
4. Mr. Finn has had a stroke that damaged the trigeminal nerve but not the facial, glossopharyngeal, or vagus
nerve. Would he still be able to taste the difference between hot peppers and French fries? Explain your answer.
5. You ordered coleslaw at a new restaurant but unfortunately suffered repeated bouts of vomiting for the next
12 hours. Three years later, your stomach turns at the very thought of eating coleslaw. Explain this reaction.
6. Explain why it is not uncommon to develop an eye infection after having a cold.
7. When a patient is asked to look to the left, her right eye moves to the left, but her left eye does not. Which
extrinsic eye muscle is not functioning properly?
8. In this module you read about macular degeneration. Would you expect the same type of vision loss if a
person experienced degeneration of the rods? Why or why not? Explain.
9. If your vision is normal and you put on your hyperopic friend’s glasses, is the focal point in front of your
retina or behind it?
10. Explain what would happen in a rod if the cGMP were replaced with a form that was insensitive to
phosphodiesterase (PDE).
11. In what part of the visual field would blindness occur if a tumor disrupted the left optic tract?
12. Suppose someone’s ceruminous glands did not produce any cerumen. What symptoms would this person
experience?
13. How would your hearing be affected if your tensor tympani muscle suddenly contracted and did not relax?
14. A sound produces substantial vibration in the basilar membrane at the base of the cochlea. Describe the
sound in terms of pitch and loudness.
15. Eva has been diagnosed with sensorineural deafness. She wonders if she might be helped by a bone-
anchored hearing aid, a device that is surgically implanted in the temporal bone so that the bone may be used to
amplify sound. Will this device be beneficial for her type of deafness? Why or why not?
16. You feel dizzy and lose your balance whenever you tilt your head back to look at the sky. In which part of
the inner ear is dysfunction likely causing your symptoms?
17. You fix your gaze on your book as you turn your head to the right. In which direction does the vestibulo-
ocular reflex cause your eyes to move? Which cranial nerve nuclei receive input from the vestibular nuclei to
produce the vestibulo-ocular reflex?
18. Your grandmother suffers from dizziness and loses her balance easily. She asks you why her doctor
recommended that she visit an ear, nose, and throat specialist. What would you tell her?
19. Your sister sits beside you as you watch your friend surf, but she cannot see him because she is blind. The
dysfunction of which anatomical structures could be causing her blindness?
20. A tumor has destroyed the areas of a patient’s thalamus that are part of the special senses pathways. Which
special sense will not be affected, and why? Explain why the patient has no conscious awareness of the
remaining special senses.