[To the online textbook Psychology: An Introduction (2017) by Russ Dewey]
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Revised 11/23/2016. Welcome to the self-quiz on the Human Nervous System. These questions accompany Chapter 2 (The Human Nervous System) of the online textbook Psychology: An Introduction). They are general enough to be useful for students using other textbooks as well.
Read the question and click on an answer. You will jump to a correction or (if the answer is correct) a confirmation.
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[The remainder of the page is not meant to be read sequentially; it consists of answers and explanations separated by stretches of nothing. You will jump back and forth to these as you click on possible answers of the questions.]
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they are nearly identical despite major differences in the brain's internal structure
No, there are fairly major differences...
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the human brain has many more convolutions
Yes...this is the single most conspicuous difference between human and non-human brains, viewed from the outside (although chimpanzees and gorillas come close to human brains in prominence of convolutions).
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the lower animals have more convolutions and therefore fewer direct connections
No, they have fewer convolutions (and references to "lower animals" are not very fashionable these days, either...)
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human convolutions are less numerous, but larger
No, humans have far more convolutions, resulting in vastly increased surface area
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humans have frontal lobes, other animals do not
No, other animals have frontal lobes, although frontal lobes are much larger in humans than in other species.
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is common in the animal kingdom
Yes. Just about all animals have bilateral symmetry (a two-sided nervous system with each side resembling the other). Exceptions are animals with radial (circular) symmetry, such as starfish
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is unique to humans
No, in fact, most animals have a two-sided nervous system
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is found only in old world primates, including humans
No, dogs, cats, mice, even flatworms have bilateral symmetry
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is apparently involved in the sense of equilibrium or balance
No, balance is regulated by special mechanisms which are not directly related to bilateral symmetry.
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has been disproven by PET scans showing lateralization
No, lateralization refers to the tendency of some skills to be better executed by one side of the brain or the other, whereas bilateral symmetry refers to the fact that there are two sides which appear physically similar or symmetrical.
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the "minor" hemisphere is better at delicate, controlled action
No, if anything, the opposite is true, if "minor" means "non-dominant" (e.g. the right hemisphere in most right-handed people). A right-handed person generally shows better coordination with the right hand, controlled by the left hemisphere
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if one side suddenly fails, the other can take over
No, it is not quite that easy (although if a person is BORN without one hemisphere, the other one "takes over" and the person grows up behaving normally)
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oscillations between the two sides set up a rhythm of activity
No...some scientists are discussing rhythms or oscillations in the brain as important events, but this is not the control system alluded to in the question.
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the left hemisphere leads a person to take on challenges, the right hemisphere is associated with avoidance
Yes...no doubt this is a simplistic idea, but there is a lot of evidence (for example, from the Wada test in which one hemisphere then the other is anesthetized) that the left hemisphere is more "worry-free" and manic or willing to try new activities, while the right hemisphere is more anxious, avoidant, and cautious or worried, when operating independently. This led Kinsbourne and others to suggest that two sides act as "opponent processes" similar to an accelerator and a brake.
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the two sides allow people to balance in an upright position
No, even a person born without one hemisphere can walk upright without losing balance
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automatic
Yes, autonomic means essentially the same thing as automatic. That is a handy way to remember that the autonomic division of the peripheral nervous system is involved in many activities somewhat outside conscious control (such as heart rate, sweating, and other responses related to emotion).
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emotional
No, although the autonomic nervous system does relate to emotional expression, this is not what the word means.
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regenerative
Autonomic means regenerative? Hmmm...you must be guessing or exploring all the alternatives... Pick another answer.
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isolated
No, the autonomic nervous system is not particularly isolated...it is part of the overall central nervous system and interacts with the other parts.
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retroactive
No, "retroactive" means "backward-acting" and that does not really describe the autonomic nervous system in any way.
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are not quite as good as thermograms at showing detail
No, PET scans actually show more detail than thermograms. Thermograms show temperature variations in the brain, which gives only a very approximate location of activity.
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show only brain structures, not areas of activity
No, one of the advantages of PET over old-time MRI is that PET can show areas of activity. (So can functional MRI, a newer variety of MRI.)
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are made by rotating an X-ray machine around a patient's head
No, that is a CAT scan.
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often use labeled glucose
Yes...this is the most common variety of PET scan. Radioactively tagged glucose emits positrons when the glucose is consumed by the brain, resulting in the emission of gamma rays which can be picked up by the scanner.
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have not lived up to early expectations, according to the chapter
No, PET scans were very useful for years. However, they have been largely displaced in the 21st Century by functional MRI and other techniques that do not require people to ingest radioactive tracers.
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a button
No, you might be thinking of the synaptic bouton or synaptic knob, a round structure which sometimes appears at the end of an axon fiber.
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a cake of many layers
Not exactly...try again.
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a grape arbor, according to Cajal
No. Cajal did say that the dendritic field of a Purkinje cell looked like a grape arbor, however.
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a dendritic tree
Yes. The tree-like appearance is implied by the word arborization which has the word arbor (tree) in it. Axons can branch many times, just like dendrites, and when stained an axonal arborization looks much like a dendritic tree.
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a corn stalk
Not unless it is an unusually frayed and frazzled cornstalk. An axonal arborization looks more like the branches of a tree.
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suction removal of brain tissue
No, tissue is not actually removed in a lobotomy.
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removal of the frontal lobe
No, that would be called a "lobectomy" (like an appendectomy, removal of an appendix). A lobotomy, more properly called a leucotomy, merely isolates the frontal lobe from the rest of the brain, while leaving the lobe intact.
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cutting off the blood supply to the frontal lobe
No, just the opposite. The blood vessels run along the surface of the brain (as any sufferer of a migraine headache will testify) and they are not disturbed by cuts made deep inside, as is done in an lobotomy circa 1940s. (More modern forms of lobotomy sometimes use saline injections or other techniques.)
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injection of transmitters into the frontal lobe
No, transmitters were not even known about when lobotomies were popular, in the 1940s.
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cutting off communication between the frontal lobe and the rest of the brain
That's it. Lobotomies cut axons, the nerve fibers which conduct information around the nervous system. In the classic procedure of the 1930s and 1940s, the axons leading away from the frontal lobe were cut, so the frontal lobe was isolated from the rest of the brain, with respect to neural communication. The tissue remains alive but can no longer contribute to mental processing.
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a type of nerve cell in the midbrain
No, the corpus collosum actually involves many millions of nerve cells, perhaps billions.
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a collection of deep midbrain structures
No...the corpus callosum is deep in the brain, but it is not a "collection" of structures. Also, it is considered part of the forebrain, not the midbrain.
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a lobe on the brain
No, a lobe is a major area of the cerebral cortex marked off by a deep fold called a fissure. This does not describe the corpus callosum.
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the main fiber bundle connecting the hemispheres
Right. The corpus callosum is the structure which is cut in the famous "split brain" experiments, in which the two cerebral hemispheres are disconnected from each other, resulting (arguably) in two different centers of consciousness within the same head. I say "arguably" because some scholars argue for alternative interpretations and say the idea of two separate centers of consciousness has been exaggerated.
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the so-called homunculus
No, the homunculus is a famous diagram generated by Wilder Penfield in the late 1940s, showing which parts of the motor cortex seemed to be connected to which parts of the body.
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a tube of membrane
Yes, among other things, an axon is formed out of a tube of membrane. It has smaller tubes within it, too: microtubules and neurofilaments.
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the dendritic tree of a neuron
No, although axons and dendrites are sometimes hard to distinguish (and sometimes an dendrite might turn into an axon as it stretches away from a cell, one surprising finding from the 1980s) the two are conceptually distinct to most neuroscientists, with a dendrite conceived as primarily an input area, an axon as an output system.
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a so-called Schwann cell
No, Schwann cells are specialized cells which form the myelin sheath on axons by wrapping themselves around the axon and squeezing out their own innards. They are involved with axons but are not the axons themselves.
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the genetic control center of a cell
No, that is the soma or cell body.
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one lane in a "multi-laned highway"
No, you might be thinking about neurofilaments and microtubules, which have been shown to carry different molecules at different rates, depending on the molecule. They are smaller tubes within the axon.
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originates in the nucleus bayselis of Meynert
No, although there is a brain structure by that name. It is involved with the production of acetylcholine, not dopamine.
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causes depression, when too abundant
No, too much dopamine causes psychosis (and all major anti-psychotic drugs reduce dopamine levels).
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seems involved in sensory control
No, dopamine seems to be involved in motor control (which is why patients with Parkinson's Disease, which involves dopamine, develop tremors and muscle weakness).
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is commonly used in insecticides
No, you might be thinking of acetylcholine, another major transmitter. Acetylcholine esterase is a chemical which breaks acetylcholine down, and acetylcholinesterase inhibitors are commonly found in insecticides. And people spray this stuff around their households, to get rid of cockroaches. Someday that fact may be regarded with astonishment.
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produces psychosis in large amounts
Right. If you saw the movie Awakenings, based on the book by Oliver Sacks, you saw an example of how L-Dopa (which stimulates dopamine production) eventually produced "crazy" behavior in one of the patients. In general, too much dopamine causes serious mental problems, including hallucinations and delusions and paranoia.
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