Study Guide

Exam 2
Neuroscience

Neuronal communication – Chapter 5

• Loewi experiment – chemical communication

• The synapse
o Pre and postsynaptic membrane
o synaptic cleft
o synaptic vesicle
o storage granule
o postsynaptic receptor
o Gap junctions – electrical synapses
• Four steps of neurotransmission
o Neurotransmitter synthesis:
a. two locations
1. XXX
2. XXX
o Neurotransmitter release:
o the role of calcium:
o the role of quanta:
o Receptor-site activation:
a. differences between excitatory and inhibitory synapses
i. Excitatory Synapses
ii. Inhibitory Synapses
o NT deactivation (four possible mechanisms) –
1. Diffusion
2. Degradation
3. Reuptake
4. astrocyte uptake
• Types of synapses
a. Axoaxonic
b. Dendrodendritic
c. Axodendritic
d. Axosecretory
e. Axosynaptic
f. Axoextracellular
g. 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 a NT (four criteria)
1. XX
2. XX
3. XX
 4. XX
o Four classes of neurotransmitters – for all, know the steps of synthesis
and breakdown as detailed in class:
▪ Small-molecule transmitters

• Acetylcholine (ACh)
a. synthesis and breakdown including all enzymes involved
• Amines (dopamine, norepinephrine, epinephrine)
a. Synthesis: (including tyrosine, tyrosine hydroxylase, L-Dopa), rate-limiting factor
• Serotonin synthesis

• Amino acid synthesis

• Glutamate, GABA

▪ Peptide neurotransmitters

• Functions, difference between peptide and small-molecule NT

▪ Lipid neurotransmitters

• Endocannabanoids, function (neuromodulators, generated

postsynaptically to influence presynaptic neurons, etc.)
o Receptor types
▪ Ionotropic

▪ Metabotropic

• G-proteins

• Second-messengers

• Metabotropic coupled with an enzyme vs. coupled with an ion

channel – how these act
• Neurotransmission in the SNS
o Cholinergic neurons (motor neurons) - ACh is primary NT
o Nicotinic ACh receptors
• Neurotransmission in ANS
o Primary NT released by the parasympathetic (ACh) vs. sympathetic (NE)
• Activating systems of the CNS
o Cholinergic system – important for sleep/wake, attention, memory
▪ 2 systems: Brainstem & basal forebrain systems
o Dopaminergic system – movement, reward, motivation
▪ 2 systems: nigrostriatal and mesolimbic
o Noradrenergic system – important for learning and emotion, main projections
 come from the locus coeruleus
o Serotonergic system – important for a lot of things (learning, emotion), main
projections from the raphe nuclei
• The role of synapses in learning and plasticity
o Aplysia studies
o Hebbian synapses/learning – fire together wire together
o Habituation – mechanism of action, e.g., role of Ca2+
o Sensitization – mechanism of action, e.g., role of Ca2+

Drugs and Hormones – Chapter 6

• Psychopharmacology
o Psychoactive drugs – definition
o Role of the BBB
▪ BBB-free regions
o Seven different mechanisms by which drugs can act (influence NT synthesis,
storage, release, receptor interaction, inactivation, reuptake, degradation) o
Agonist vs. antagonist
o Types of tolerance (metabolic, cellular, learned), cross-tolerance
• Categories of psychoactive drugs – for each, know the different drug subtypes (and
names), mechanism of action, types of disorders they treat or behavioral effects of
Anti-anxiety drugs and sedative-hypnotics
▪ Barbiturates, benzodiazepines, act on GABAa receptors (inhibitory)
o Antipsychotics
▪ First vs. second generation – mechanism of action (DA)

▪ Dopamine hypothesis of schizophrenia

o Antidepressants and mood stabilizers
▪ MAOIs, tricyclics, SSRIs, mechanism of action, etc.

▪ Mood stabilizers – bipolar disorder

o Opioid analgesics
▪ Endorphins
o Stimulants
▪ Behavioral (works on DA) vs. psychedelic (ACh, anandamide, glutamate,
NE, 5-HT) vs. general stimulants

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

• Three pathways to the visual brain:

o Geniculostriate system: (main visual system)
▪ Lateral geniculate nucleus (organization, P vs. M cells, Ipsi vs.
Contralateral layers)
▪ Striate cortex (aka primary visual cortex), ocular dominance columns
o Tectopulvinar system: (orienting movements)
▪ Superior colliculus (in the tectum), pulvinar (in the thalamus)
o Retinohypothalamic tract (light, sleep/wake)
▪ Retina 🡪 suprachiasmatic nucleus (in hypothalamus)

• The rest of the visual system

o Blobs and interblobs (v1)
o Stripes (V2), extrastriate cortex
o Dorsal and ventral visual streams
o FFA, prosopagnosia
• Location in the visual world
o L and R visual fields
o Location coding in RGCs, LGN, V1
• Seeing shape
o Lateral inhibition in the retina, edge enhancement
o On- and off-center RGCs
o Luminance contrast
o Orientation detectors in V1
▪ Simple cells, complex cells

▪ How info proceeds from RGCs to bars in the cortex

▪ Orientation columns

▪ Hubel and Wiesel (cat) experiment

• 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