P363-01 PHYSIOLOGICAL PSYCHOLOGY

Spring, 1999

TAKE HOME TEST #1

Please answer the following four (4) questions as completely as possible. You may use your book and notes (other references may also be used, but shouldn't be necessary). While you are encouraged to discuss these questions with others in class, you MUST TURN IN YOUR OWN ANSWERS. Answers that appear to be duplicates of others in the class with be considered cheating- so please do your own work.

Each question is worth a possible 25 points (100 points total). Each answer should be approximately 3/4 to 1 page long (handwritten). Answers need not be typed, however, it is preferred when possible (hard on my eyes, but that will be explained on the next test!).

Answers are due by FRIDAY, February 19th by 4:30 PM. Oh- and have fun (answers should be factual, but creative license is allowed).

You (yes, you) are a famous neuropsychologist who works at an exclusive student health center in a midwestern state of your choice. The following patients come into your center with some difficulties. You, being as famous as you are, have been asked to consult on the case and to decide what is going on.

1. Dr. Don Dingbat suffered a little, shall we say, "accident". He was playing around with some stereotaxic equipment in the lab and tripped. The result appears to be damage limited mostly to the area around the supplementary motor area (M2). It WAS on the left side of his brain, and there appears to be some possible Broca's damage as well, or at least I think. He appears to have difficulty speaking (well, in moving in general), but it is difficult to determine if he CAN speak, or whether he just doesn't want to. Your problem: determine what kind of damage is LIKELY in this situation, and try and determine HOW you could distinguish between M2 damage and Broca's damage. Good luck. Oh, and please be nice to Dr. Dingbat. He's likely to still be around for the next test!

2. Dr. Dave Do-Little, co-worker of Dr.Dingbat, has also had some recent difficulty. He is too lazy to wear a bicycle helmet, even after hearing my lectures and having me yell at him. As a result, he has fallen off of his bike while trying to avoid ISU students. As a result, he appears to have some difficulty with visual-auditory integration. He seems to neglect the left side of his body (the damage was mostly to the right side), or maybe it is that he can no longer integrate sensory information with motor information. The damage may have been to the M1 area, or maybe to the S1 area. The damage was profuse enough that it is difficult to figure out which is more impacted. My question to you: What could you do to determine whether the damage is to the S1 or the M1 areas? What kinds of differences in behavior would you expect with S1 versus M1 damage? What would happen if BOTH areas were damaged? Let me know. With Dr. Dingbat down, all I have left is Dr. Do-Little to help me in the lab. What hope should I have?

3. Mary is a recent spinal cord accident victim (she wasn't wearing a helmet while riding her bike!). As a result of the injury, she has damage approximately at the third spinal nerve (C3). However, while the injury is quite sever, Mary is very lucky: The damage appears to have either bruised or severed the dorsal connections, while the ventral root appears slightly bruised but basically intact. Given this bruising/severing of the ventral vs dorsal areas of the spinal cord, what functions would you expect Mary to have remaining? What chance is there for her regaining even limited use of her arms and legs? What functions might she expect to recover, and what can she expect to lose? How would this affect her daily functioning? Be sure to consider both voluntary versus autonomic functions in your answer- as this could make a BIG difference in her life.

And finally, use your imagination on this one!

4. Remember the (horrible) movie about the submarine full of voyagers that traveled around the body- the Fantastic Voyage? (More recently, Meg Ryan and Martin Short starred in a similar, albeit more "sexy" version in Inner Space). Well- you are in this yellow submarine, or maybe the Magic School Bus, or even a shrunken Enterprise. Anyway, it is a REALLY, REALLY tiny ship- so small that it is able to explore inside the neuron. This neuron just happens to be a hypothalamic neuron, so it is currently involved in one of the 4 F behaviors!!!

Describe, from the perspective of you and your miniature scientists colleagues inside this tiny (yellow) submarine, exactly what you see happening to the neuron (especially the axon) during an action potential. Remember- you ARE a scientist (and quite well trained at that), so you can take chemical and electrical readings and any other readings you might choose. Describe what it is like to enter the dendrites, be pushed through the cell membrane, ride down the axon/myelin sheath during an action potential, and be spit out into the synapse. You may then choose your own demise: will you will be destroyed through enzymatic action, repackaged by reuptake, or go on to ride yet another action potential???? You can also include what kind of neuron this is (function) and what kind of neurotransmitter you are affecting.