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Outline Exam2
Outline Exam2
Exam 2
Neuroscience
• The synapse
o Pre and post-synaptic membrane, synaptic cleft, synaptic vesicle, storage
granule, postsynaptic receptor
o Gap junctions – electrical synapses
• Four steps of neurotransmission
o Neurotransmitter synthesis: two locations
o Neurotransmitter release: the role of calcium, quanta
o Receptor-site activation: differences between excitatory and inhibitory synapses
o NT deactivation (four possible mechanisms – diffusion, degradation, reuptake,
astrocyte uptake)
• Types of synapses (e.g., axoaxonic, dendrodendritic, axodendritic, axosecretory,
axosynaptic, axoextracellular, axosomatic)
• Neurotransmitters
o General maxims about NT (can be both excitatory and inhibitory depending on
the location, may have multiple NT at one synapse, no one-to-one relationship
between NT and behavior)
o How to identify an NT (four criteria)
o Four classes of neurotransmitters – for all, know the steps of synthesis and
breakdown as detailed in class:
▪ Small-molecule transmitters
• Glutamate, GABA
▪ Peptide neurotransmitters
▪ Lipid neurotransmitters
▪ Metabotropic
• G-proteins
• Second-messengers
Vision – Chapter 9
• Sensation vs. perception
• Sensory transduction
o Sensory receptors, receptive fields
• The retina:
o fovea, blind spot (optic disc, optic nerve)
o Photoreceptor cells (rods and cones), what they do, where they’re located
▪ Short, medium, vs. long-wavelength cones
o Other cells in the retina – horizontal, bipolar, amacrine, ganglion (Magno vs.
parvocellular)
• Optic nerve, optic chiasm
▪ Orientation columns
• Seeing color
o Trichromatic theory
o Opponent process theory, how color RGCs are organized
• Damage to different portions of the visual pathway
o Monocular blindness
o Homonymous hemianopia
o Quadrantanopia
o Scotoma
o Visual Agnosias (damage to the ventral stream)
o Damage to the dorsal stream