General Questions

August 15, 2023 4:19 PM

Q: Transection of spinal cord results in what? A: Anesthesia of skin + paralysis of muscles in body parts caudal to it, where paralysis =
muscles cannot be controlled by brain (not that the muscles do not function)

Q: If ventricles are small what does it indicate? A: Less healthy

CEREBRAL CORTEX

Q: What does stimulating the precentral gyrus indicate? A: When you stimulate it, it twitches = how different parts of the brain trigger
movement

Q: State all alternative names for the precentral gyrus? A: Precentral gyrus = Motor cortex, M1, Area 4

Q: Area 4 vs. Area 6 vs. PFC? A: PFC - Decides movement (Ready), Area 6 - Motor planning (Set), Area 4 - Does the
action (Go)

Q: What is Area 6 responsible for and how was Area 6 A: Area 6 (SMA + PMA) was discovered by recording neurons in animals. Observations
discovered and hat observations were made about this from these recordings showed that firing increased before actual movement took place.
discovery?

Q: What happens when you lesion the PMA and what A: PMA = Cannot plan movements/action towards targets
happens when you lesion the SMA? SMA = Apraxia, motor deficits in actions that require coordinated action

Q: Electrophysiological recordings show that some A: PMA neurons - Motor planning

neurons are highly active when a monkey is about to do
an action to an object but then turn off immediately
when the action is complete. What type of neurons are
you looking at? What does this demonstrate evidence
for?

Q: What would you expect the physiological recordings of A: The phase of the task where the monkey is about to press the lever or indicated to do
PMA neurons to look like if you give a monkey the task of so by a light is when we consider the instruction stimulus to be on. At this phase, the
pressing a button on a lever? PMA neurons are highly active. After the task of pressing the lever is complete, the
trigger stimulus is on, the activity of PMA neurons decrease.

Q: If you are viewing a structure with neurons that A: PFC - Decides what movement to make
project to area 6, what structure are you looking at?
What is its function?

Q: PMA vs. Mirror Neurons? A:

How can you identify mirror neurons vs. PMA neurons by PMA TO A SPECIFIC TARGET, MIRROR NEURONS TO SPECIALIZED ACTION
electrophysiological recordings from an experiment? (IMAGINED OR REAL)
Describe experiment first.
Specific mirror neuron
IF Active when monkey doing action or watching another organism do the action in the
same way but not active when this action is changed = Mirror neurons.

IF AP fires when about to do action but same neuron does not fire when watching
another organism do the exact same action = PMA neurons.

Q: Will the same mirror neuron in a monkey fire when it

watches another monkey pick up a peanut with their
hands as when a human picks up the peanut with
forceps?
Q: What does it mean when mirror neurons react to
auditory cues related to motor movement?
A: No, because each mirror neuron responds to a specific movement. Different mirror
neurons will fire when the peanut it picked up by forceps compared to when it is picked
up by bare hands. The action is what matters, the person or animal doing the action is
irrelevant.
A: Not just encoding sensory stimulus, but motor goal - Neuron responds to specific kind
of movement and making sounds requires motor movement

Lecture Page 1
 of movement and making sounds requires motor movement

BASAL GANGLIA
= GP, striatum, nigra
Q: Basal ganglia made of what type of circuits?
A: Parallel circuits, only few related to motor
Q: What is the target of input and what is the target of
output? A: Input = Striatum (Caudate + putamen), output to thalamus = Globus pallidus

Q: What do both direct and indirect pathways share in

common? What effect does this have in the basal A: Both pathways begin with incoming excitatory connections from the cortex. Frontal
ganglia? cortex neuron (excitatory, glutamatergic) comes in to basal ganglia's putamen.
Excitatory cells synapse on inhibitory neurons (GABAergic) neurons in putamen. Results
in inhibitory effect in the globus pallidus.

Lecture Page 2