Neurobiology For Dummies
Amthor, Frank
Citation (Chicago Style): Amthor, Frank. Neurobiology For Dummies. Wiley, 2020. Kindle edition.
Part I: Getting Started with Neurobiology
Highlight(blue) – Chapter 1: Welcome to the World of Neurobiology > Page 7 · Location 631
Generally, the human genetic program creates a brain with more neurons than any other animal, allowing for richer experience to produce a unique kind of intelligence.
Highlight(blue) – Introducing Neurons > Page 9 · Location 677
eukaryotes (cells that have a nucleus). Soon after eukaryotes appeared, multicellular organisms came on the scene.
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Different muscles must be contracted in an organized manner, and information from the senses must be sent to remote parts of the body neurons to coordinate movement.
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Bionics is the field of applying biological principles of operation to man-made devices.
Highlight(blue) – Organizing the Nervous System > Page 14 · Location 788
The autonomic nervous system has major subdivisions into sympathetic and parasympathetic branches that tend to oppose each other’s actions. The sympathetic system prepares us for action in the fight-or-flight mode, while the parasympathetic system organizes resources for digestion, and the maintenance and conservation of energy.
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primary motor cortex, the supplementary motor area (SMA) and premotor cortex (PMC), contain motor
Highlight(blue) – Perceiving the World, Thinking, Learning, and Remembering > Page 18 · Location 888
The olfactory system is unique in being divided between a pathway that projects (although indirectly) through the thalamus, of which we are aware, and a pathway that is non-thalamic, which influences our behavior, but of which we are not directly aware.
Highlight(blue) – Perceiving the World, Thinking, Learning, and Remembering > Page 18 · Location 894
A behavioral hallmark of mammals is they can change their behavior through learning.
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One important aspect of the reconstructive aspect of memory is that the act of reconstruction can distort the memory. Suggestions, guesses, and events after the memory can affect the reconstruction such that they become part of, and indistinguishable from, subsequent reconstructions.
Highlight(blue) – Getting into Genetics > Page 24 · Location 1027
each unique form of a single gene is called an allele.
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Adenine (A) Cytosine (C) Guanine (G) Thymine (T)
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mitosis, which is itself divided into different phases: prophase, metaphase, anaphase, and telophase.
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(RNA is a nucleotide like DNA, except is has the nucleotide uracil substituted for thymine.)
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called base pairing.
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The genetic code is a sequence of three nucleotides (called a codon) that specifies an amino acid.
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that in RNA the nucleotide uracil takes the place that thymine occupies in DNA.
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heterophilic nuclear RNA (hnRNA).
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Methylation and histone deacetylation may act simultaneously to control DNA expression.
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reverse transcription, which is the transfer of information from RNA to make new DNA. Reverse transcription occurs in retroviruses such as HIV and is a common feature of the replication cycle for many viruses.
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Epigenetics is the change in gene expression (and thus, cell phenotype, which we discuss earlier in this chapter) due to mechanisms other than changes in the underlying DNA sequence.
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totipotent stem cells (cells that can develop into any cell type) differentiate
Highlight(blue) – Meeting Cell Molecules: Important Ions and Proteins > Page 32 · Location 1213
The most important ions that flow through neuronal membrane channels are sodium, potassium, chloride, and calcium.
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Sodium entering into cells can trigger action potentials and lead to synaptic release, two crucial neural functions.
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Normally magnesium does not pass through neuronal membranes. However, when the neuron is close to the resting potential, magnesium, attracted to the negative charge inside, binds in the extracellular “mouth” of the NMDA glutamate receptor. This receptor will not open unless, in addition to binding glutamate released from a pre-synaptic axon terminal, the membrane is partially depolarized. This depolarization (which is often provided by nearby non-NMDA excitatory receptors) reduces the potential across the membrane and thereby favors the release of the magnesium ion, allowing sodium and some calcium to flow through the channel.
Highlight(blue) – Meeting Cell Molecules: Important Ions and Proteins > Page 33 · Location 1240
Membrane proteins have a three-dimensional configuration.
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hormones—chemicals released by a cell in one part of the organism that act as messages to cells in other parts of the organism.
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exocytosis
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The sequence of neurotransmission is quite similar to hormonal communication. Neurotransmission differs, however, in that neurons actually contact other specific neurons—or muscles or gland cells—directly at synapses, where information flows from one neuron to another across the synaptic cleft, the gap between a pre-and post-synaptic cell. The neurotransmitter released usually activates only receptors directly across the synaptic cleft in a single postsynaptic cell. This allows for significantly more complex communication with neurons than is possible with hormones.
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phospholipids.
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rigid molecules such as cellulose,
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amphipathic.
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It’s interesting that the extracellular fluid around cells in animals resembles the seawater in which cells originally evolved. If you think this wasn’t an accident, you’re right!
Bookmark – Setting Boundaries: Cell Membrane Lipids > Page 38 · Location 1353
Highlight(blue) – Knowing the Neuron: Not Just Another Cell > Page 43 · Location 1427
The axon conducts action potentials, millisecond-long electrical pulses that move from the cell body to the synaptic terminals of the axon, where they cause neurotransmitter to be released onto postsynaptic neurons.
Highlight(blue) – Knowing the Neuron: Not Just Another Cell > Page 44 · Location 1451
Above this threshold, the rate of action potentials, or spikes, is generally proportional to the net excitatory (depolarizing) current.
Highlight(blue) – When Things Go Wrong: Genetics and Neurological Illness > Page 46 · Location 1506
transgenic animals
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Typically, the introduced DNA is packaged within a vector that is used to get the DNA inside cells within the body. One common vector is a virus, because viruses normally function by binding the cell membrane and inserting their DNA or RNA into the cell. The contents of a virus can be modified to produce a human gene. Also, exogenous DNA may be introduced that encodes a therapeutic protein that works like a drug rather than the DNA corresponding to any actual human gene.
Highlight(blue) – Looking at Membrane Channels > Page 48 · Location 1567
Ion-selective channels Ion-selective channels, as their name implies, control the movement of certain ions through plasma membranes.
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Secretory mechanisms Neurons release neurotransmitters at their presynaptic terminals.
Highlight(blue) – Discovering Diffusion and Voltage > Page 53 · Location 1668
The Nernst equation—developed from basic thermodynamic principles by the 19th-century German chemist Walter Nernst—gives us the answer. It gives the “balance point” (called the equilibrium potential) between the diffusion and voltage forces,
Highlight(blue) – Discovering Diffusion and Voltage > Page 55 · Location 1707
 The Goldman–Hodgkin–Katz equation determines the voltage that results from ionic currents across the membrane.
Highlight(blue) – Signaling with Electricity in Neurons > Page 57 · Location 1752
Neurons receive messages in the form of neurotransmitters through ligand-gated channels on their dendrites, soma, and, in some cases, axon. These inputs are excitatory if the receptors flux sodium ions, inhibitory if they flux potassium or chloride.
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Refractory periods and spike rate coding
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One interesting result of this second factor is that the relationship between synaptic input current and spike rate in most neurons is more like a logarithmic function than a linear function.
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Creating an accurate model of the activity of just one neuron—the complex, time-varying changes in its thousands of synapses and millions of voltage-dependent membrane ion channels—can take 100 percent of the processing power of a quite large computer.
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cable theory,
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unmyelinated axons,
Highlight(blue) – Insulating with Glial Cells > Page 66 · Location 1941
The glial cells that do this are Schwann cells in the peripheral nervous system and oligodendrocytes in the central nervous system.
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nodes of Ranvier,
Bookmark – Chapter 4: Sending Signals: Chemical Release and Electrical Activation > Page 67 · Location 1954
Highlight(blue) – Looking at Synaptic Transmission > Page 68 · Location 1977
receptors). If the ion channel is selectively permeable to sodium (that is, it allows sodium ions to pass), it’s an excitatory receptor. If the channel is permeable to potassium or chloride, it is typically an inhibitory receptor.
Highlight(blue) – Looking at Synaptic Transmission > Page 72 · Location 2078
carbon monoxide.
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Neuromuscular activation occurs by ionotropic acetylcholine receptors, called nicotinic receptors (because they can be activated by nicotine).
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receptor, but that is effective in producing the same effects as the normal neurotransmitter.
Highlight(blue) – Dividing and Conquering: Interneurons and Circuits > Page 82 · Location 2288
Most digital computers are serial devices, executing one instruction at a time. The brain is massively parallel, however, potentially executing billion of actions simultaneously.
Part II: Neuroanatomy: Organizing the Nervous System
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The spinal cord is an extended brain whose different segments (with some overlap) control the four limbs (and other body parts) to act in unison. However, the spinal cord lacks vision, hearing, smell, taste, and balance senses. These senses are concentrated in the head, which, in four-legged and swimming animals, is first to encounter stimuli during movement. The brain has an elaborate structure for processing sensory information and coordinating it with bodily movement.
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The white-matter axon tracts carry information up and down the spinal cord to other segments and the brain.
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In the center of the gray area is a canal that contains cerebrospinal (brain and spine) fluid. The fluid is continuous with the brain.
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Because of the continuity between the spinal and brain cerebrospinal fluid, anesthetics can be injected below the cauda equina between L3 and L5 into the spinal cord and will, through circulation of the fluid, reach the brain.
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You can think of walking as a process of falling forward and catching yourself again and again. In the falling forward phase, you override your balance reflexes until the point where you swing a leg forward.
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The spinal cord neuronal circuits that produce these rhythmic patterns of neural activity are called central pattern generators (CPGs).
Highlight(blue) – Correcting Errors: The Cerebellum > Page 114 · Location 2921
The cerebellum (Latin for “little brain”) is a part of the brain that plays an important role in motor coordination, precision, and timing.
Highlight(blue) – Correcting Errors: The Cerebellum > Page 115 · Location 2935
Cerebellar lesions result in decreased muscle tone, clumsy and abnormal movements, and loss of balance.
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decussation of the pyramids.
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substantia nigra
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The hippocampus is an association engine for memory.
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With practice, and often during sleep, the hippocampus reciprocally fires back at the neocortex cells that generated the long-term potentiation, and produces a long-term memory by enabling the cells in the neocortex to form their own mutually excitatory memory circuit that can be activated by future input, independent of the hippocampus.
Highlight(blue) – Controlling Your Motives: The Limbic System > Page 137 · Location 3369
The famous clinical case of the patient H.M. shows the importance of the hippocampus in learning.
Highlight(blue) – Regulating the Autonomic Nervous System: The Hypothalamus > Page 138 · Location 3402
One theory is that synapses that are activated during waking activities are pared back (in a process known as normalization) so that the brain is ready for renewed synapse growth during learning.
Highlight(blue) – Regulating the Autonomic Nervous System: The Hypothalamus > Page 139 · Location 3412
REM sleep has been shown to be important for consolidating learning. During REM sleep, what has been learned during the day and held in short-term memory is transferred to long-term memory.
Highlight(blue) – Chapter 8: Generating Behavior: Basal Ganglia, Thalamus, Motor Cortex, and Frontal Cortex > Page 145 · Location 3559
The important brain areas for decisions about doing things include the basal ganglia, thalamus, and frontal lobes, all of which I discuss in this chapter.
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and the substantia nigra, which are actually in the midbrain.
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Bookmark – The Basal Ganglia and Its Nuclei > Page 146 · Location 3573
Highlight(blue) – The Basal Ganglia and Its Nuclei > Page 146 · Location 3573
Coronal brain section
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The striatum inhibits the globus pallidus external segment (GPe), globus pallidus internal segment (GPi), and substantia nigra reticulata (SNr). GPe inhibits the subthalamic nucleus (STN). STN excites GPe and GPi/ SNr. The output of the basal ganglia, GPi/ SNr inhibits the thalamus, which itself excites the frontal cortex. The net effect of all this is that the inputs to the thalamus that are not inhibited by the basal ganglia are the ones that activate the cortex.
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Although the operation of the basal ganglia and related nuclei are not well understood, it is clear that the basal ganglia are involved in the selection of behaviors. Given the current inputs and brain state, the neocortex is simultaneously activating “programs” for multiple behaviors. The job of the basal ganglia is to choose one behavior over all the others.
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Both the direct and indirect pathways are modulated by the SNc, which uses the neurotransmitter dopamine. Dopamine release by the SNc amplifies activity in the direct pathway, increasing cortical activation of movement. Dopamine released by the SNc also reduces the effect of indirect pathway inhibition. The reduction of dopamine release in the case of Parkinson’s disease causes people to lose their ability to initiate movement, because of both lowered activity of the direct pathway and reduced inhibition of the inhibitory indirect pathway.
Highlight(blue) – Controlling Muscles: The Primary Motor Cortex > Page 148 · Location 3611
Many neurons in the motor cortex send their axons down the spinal cord and synapse on alpha motor neurons (the motor neurons that innervate muscle fibers; refer to Chapter 5) in a direct control pathway. This direct pathway allows fine, conscious control of muscles, particularly in the hands and fingers.
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The primary motor cortex contains a distorted map of the body’s muscles called a homunculus.
Highlight(blue) – Coordinating Muscle Groups: Central Control > Page 150 · Location 3645
Although the spinal cord is pretty good at coordinating ordinary movement, evolution has not yet programmed your body to dance the foxtrot, play hopscotch, or swim.
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abstract representations of your goals exist in prefrontal cortex, the most anterior part of the frontal lobe.
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 The SMA is activated even if you just imagine doing something like moving your arms and legs, without actually doing it.
Highlight(blue) – The Thalamus: Gateway to the Neocortex > Page 153 · Location 3717
Because of this appearance, area 17 is called striate (for striped) cortex.
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 Some taste information is also projected to the orbitofrontal cortex where, combined with smell information, it gives rise to the finer senses of food flavor. Tell that to your foodie friends at their next dinner party!
Highlight(blue) – The Thalamus: Gateway to the Neocortex > Page 155 · Location 3774
Neurons in the reticular areas are mostly GABAergic (use the inhibitory neurotransmitter GABA),
Highlight(blue) – Focusing on Goals with the Prefrontal Cortex > Page 156 · Location 3802
prefrontal cortex. When this brain area is damaged, behavior becomes stimulus driven, not dependent on internal goals.
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Damage to the orbitofrontal-
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amygdala system can result in sociopathic behavior in which the person is unable to feel empathy.
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The ventral ACC is involved in processing emotional stimuli.
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One of the most fascinating findings in neurobiology in the last two decades has been the repeated demonstration of activation of the ACC while performing difficult or confusing tasks.
Bookmark – Chapter 9: Topping It Off: The Neocortex > Page 159 · Location 3863
Highlight(blue) – Looking Inside the Skull: The Neocortex and Its Lobes > Page 161 · Location 3891
fusiform face area that processes faces and other complex visual stimuli.
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Using a single circuit for all sensory and motor neural computation is one of the most remarkable traits of mammals. Many neurobiologists believe that it’s the key to mammals’ success and the ultimate generator of human intelligence and consciousness. How
Highlight(blue) – Getting to the Brain You Have Today: The Neocortex versus Your Reptilian Brain > Page 167 · Location 4012
ependymal cells
Highlight(blue) – Making Decisions: The Lateral Prefrontal Cortex > Page 171 · Location 4088
So, a teenage driver is someone controlling a car without a fully developed frontal lobe.
Highlight(blue) – Seeing Both Sides: The Left and Right Hemispheres > Page 178 · Location 4242
An area in the right medial temporal lobe called the fusiform face area is crucial for recognizing faces.
Note – Seeing Both Sides: The Left and Right Hemispheres > Page 178 · Location 4250
Than
Part III: Perceiving the World, Thinking, Learning, and Remembering
Bookmark – Chapter 11: Feeling, Smelling, and Tasting > Page 221 · Location 5182
Highlight(blue) – Implicit (Non-Declarative) Memory > Page 237 · Location 5527
Priming involves long-term memory not because the effect of a subliminally flashed image (the prime) reliably lasts for a lifetime, but because the effect of a prime activates the long-term memory system, including our world knowledge semantics. This semantic system is sometimes referred to as the perceptual representation system.
Highlight(blue) – Forgetting It: Amnesia and Other Memory Loss > Page 249 · Location 5807
retrograde
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anterograde
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Death is usually caused by the disruption of body function regulation carried out by subcortical brain areas.
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Deep learning is the linkage of new information to multiple levels of one’s already-existing semantic network.
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However, if you practice learning at multiple times, in multiple contexts, learning will be deeper and you’ll be more likely to recall what you’ve learned.
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Memory palace
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The hippocampus probably originally evolved primarily for learning in spatial navigation, and its role in episodic memory evolved later from that.
Bookmark – Chapter 13: The Frontal Lobes and Executive Brain > Page 253 · Location 5879
Highlight(blue) – Reflexes versus Conscious or Goal-Generated Action > Page 254 · Location 5907
 The crucial difference between insect and mammalian social groups is that insect social groups are composed of a few castes. An insect’s behavior is almost completely specified by a few types of responses to stimuli, as a function of its caste. But mammalian social groups consist of individuals, each of which has a specific identity and social rank.
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Our large contingency-representing brains also produced bluffing, lying, deceit, war, altruism, and all-encompassing spiritual explanations for reality.
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For example, an ancient evolutionary hack is to use the reflex of stepping when falling forward to generate walking.
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Instead, mammals co-opted the lower, yet competent systems they inherited by controlling them at a higher level, based on more complex contingencies and learning.
Highlight(blue) – Deciding How to Do It: The Frontal Lobes and Action Execution > Page 256 · Location 5967
One way to think about limbic system control of behavior is to think about the limbic system as a device for switching states. Most animals have a finite number of goal states, such as seeking water, food, a mate, or shelter. The limbic system receives input from the body’s homeostatic mechanisms, and, with limited sensory input dependency, selects the highest priority from a set of evolutionarily programmed behaviors, such as seeking a water hole or a mate.
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The animal remembers or the animals remmber
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Athletic coaches know that imagining hitting a tennis forehand activates the premotor sequence for doing so, and can improve a player’s skill, even though the actual output to the muscles is suppressed.
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Parkinson’s disease, which is associated with loss of dopaminergic transmission from the substantia nigra.
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Parkinson’s patients can certainly formulate abstract motor plans, but they have trouble initiating and executing them.
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This suggests that the instantiation of the motor sequence conceived in the frontal lobes still depends on subcortical structures to initiate, implement, and provide feedback control to deal with errors.
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The overall output of the basal ganglia inhibits all the motor sequences except the one selected via its release from inhibition.
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Patterning and oscillating
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Different frequency bands have been given different names, such as beta for 15 Hz to 30 Hz and theta for 3 Hz to 10 Hz. These rhythms are important in the normal functioning of the basal ganglia, with abnormally large, static, synchronized rhythms associated with Parkinson’s disease limb tremor. Medications that release dopamine reduce these beta oscillations and increase oscillations above 60 Hertz (high-gamma band). Activity in the subthalamic nucleus, a frequent target of electrical stimulation to relieve Parkinson’s symptoms, is important for the preparation of voluntary movements. Synchronization of subthalamic nucleus activity in the beta band is associated with movement initiation. However, the static, beta frequency oscillations in the basal ganglia in Parkinson’s disease patients interfere with the ability to initiate and execute selected movements, causing the akinesia (loss of voluntary movement) and bradykinesia (slow movement) of Parkinson’s disease.
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striatum (the input layer of the basal ganglia, consisting of the caudate and putamen).
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(SMA)
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(PMC;
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behavioral repertoires,
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The SMA controls movements and movement sequences that are generated internally, rather than triggered by sensory events.
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chunking.
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Practice can be effective even if the activity is only imagined.
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motor imagery,
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procedural memory.
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Motor learning in the cerebellum is mediated primarily by long-term depression (LTD) of parallel fiber synapses onto Purkinje cells. Climbing fibers provide the teaching signal that induces synaptic modification in parallel fiber–Purkinje cell synapses. Climbing fiber activity represents an error signal. Purkinje cells have two different types of action
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Whereas feedback inhibition, such as in spinal cord reflexes, tends to maintain a limb in a particular position, feedforward inhibition is used to program actions such as slowing down a limb before it reaches the target,
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Understand the actions and intentions of others:
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This is consistent with suggestions that autism may involve some problem with the mirror neuron system.
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theory of mind.
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Human brain areas homologous to those where mirror neurons have been found in monkeys are located in the inferior frontal cortex, close to Broca’s area, a main language region of the brain. When people gesture to each other, as in the game of charades, fMRI activity increases in brain areas of human observers, consistent with being driven by mirror neurons.
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The 3-to 5-millimeter layer of gray matter is where the cell bodies and dendrites of the neurons do most of the processing.
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thalamus
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Correlated firing is a major mechanism of attention. It can integrate and select neural activity across the entire brain. Considerable evidence exists that correlated firing underlies all brain activity we’re conscious of.
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arithmetic and algebra:
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Wernicke’s aphasia.
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fluent aphasia).
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The ability to recognize faces, for example, is highly dependent on the fusiform face area, which is in the right medial temporal lobe.
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hemi-neglect,
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externally (through verbal language) and internally (by thinking). Consciousness is a process, not a place.
Highlight(blue) – Defining Intelligence > Page 276 · Location 6405
Spearman’s g factor (IQ)
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Meta-intelligence is an executive function that refers to self-reflective capabilities, knowing one’s own strengths and weaknesses, and being able to predict
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Much of what IQ researchers mean by meta-cognition is embodied in the common idea of wisdom.
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Processing speed
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Some people think of emotions as the opposite of reason. But emotions are a useful and necessary part of cognition. Emotions not only mediate our instinctual behaviors, but also allow us to learn and adapt important new behaviors that are not rules-based.
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Anger Disgust Fear
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Happiness Sadness Surprise
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In his book The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals, Charles Darwin argued that emotions serve a communication purpose in humans that helps us to survive and is, thus, selected for. This idea implies that emotions should have universal cross-cultural expression. It also implies that emotions are connected to basic needs that are necessary for survival.
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However, people can obviously control emotional expressions—that’s how professional actors make their living!
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The job of the orbitofrontal cortex, then, is to override the amygdala’s activation of the autonomic fight-or-flight response.
Part IV: Developmental, Neurological, and Mental Disorders and Treatments
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degeneracy.
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(exons)
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(introns).
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When the neurons have reached their final positions, they extend axons and dendrites, which allow them to communicate with other neurons via synapses.
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Before an embryo’s nervous system is formed, cells at the dorsal and ventral poles of the embryo and at other key locations release chemical messengers that establish gradients across the embryo.
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Neural migration is controlled by glial cells and trophic factors.
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meninges, which consist of three layers:
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basic structure we see in worms—the simplest bilaterian animals of today:
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Evidence suggests that each radial glial cell, and the precursor neurons that migrate along it, form a fundamental unit of cortical organization called the minicolumn.
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you transplant precursor cells from a donor to a recipient animal at a different developmental stage, the donor cells go to the layer they would have migrated to in the donor, not the layer to which other cells are migrating in the recipient.
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Pyramidal cells typically have a single axon that releases glutamate at its terminal. Pyramidal cells are the primary output units of the neocortex.
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(SFA),
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 Excitatory pyramidal neurons constitute about 80 percent of neocortical neurons, while inhibitory interneurons account for the remaining 20 percent.
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Sensory projections to the neocortex often are organized as maps,
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Hebb’s law
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“When an axon of cell A is near enough to excite cell B and repeatedly or persistently takes part in firing it, some growth process or metabolic change takes place in one or both cells such that A’s efficiency, as one of the cells firing B, is increased.”
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Hebb’s law, as it became known, hypothesized that synaptic modification occurs according to correlated activity in the pre-and post-synaptic elements of synapses.
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During development of the visual system—before the retina even has photoreceptors—waves of organized self-induced spontaneous firing move across the retina constantly to produce a position-dependent internally generated correlated firing. This process repeats itself at every level of the nervous system, through many stages of neocortical processing.
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teratogen.
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The developing nervous system is building itself by chemical gradients and affinities, and it’s fragile.
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knockout
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Parkinson’s
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autosomal recessive,
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autosomal dominant
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telomeres
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Parkinson’s
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Parkinson’s disease is associated with the death of dopaminergic cells in the substantia nigra (a basal ganglia nucleus). The death of these cells interferes with a person’s ability to make voluntary movements or voluntary corrections as he walks, such as stepping over an obstacle.
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glioma,
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Parkinson’s
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Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS; also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease)
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Parkinson’s disease
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age 50.
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Although Parkinson’ disease isn’t usually associated with marked cognitive impairment in early stages, it can cause mood problems including depression, apathy, anxiety, and poor impulse control.
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Some of these symptoms may be related to treatments that attempt to increase dopamine levels rather than primarily from the disease itself.
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At the cellular level, Parkinson’s is characterized by inclusions called Lewy bodies in dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra.
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Dopamine released by neurons in the substantia nigra amplifies activity in the basal ganglia direct pathway from the striatum that disinhibits the thalamic projection to the motor cortex (refer to Chapter 8). This increases activation of the motor pathway that will be executed. This dopamine release also reduces the effect of inhibition through an indirect pathway. The reduction of dopamine release in Parkinson’s disease reduces the ability to initiate movement via both direct and indirect pathways via a reduction of the drive to the motor thalamus that gates the cortical excitatory projections to the corticospinal tract and brainstem.
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while cigarette smoking is associated with a reduced risk for unknown reasons.
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However, as the disease progresses, dopaminergic neurons are depleted so that supplying dopamine precursors is no longer effective.
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produces a complication called dyskinesia,
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chorea.
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A persistent mystery about spinal cord and other central nervous system injuries is the fact that the peripheral nervous system, but not the central nervous system, in mammals, regenerates axon pathways after transection. Also, cold-blooded vertebrates like fish can regenerate even central nervous system tracts
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like the optic nerve. One idea has to do with the fact that peripheral nervous system axons are wrapped by Schwann cells, whereas central axons are wrapped by oligodendrocytes.
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Monoamines are neurotransmitters and neuromodulators that contain one amino group that is connected to an aromatic ring by a two-carbon chain. The monoamine transmitter group includes serotonin, dopamine, epinephrine, and norepinephrine.
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low dopamine levels lead to lowered attention, motivation, and anhedonia (reduced feelings of pleasure and reward).
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Tianeptine increases the concentration of dopamine in the nucleus accumbens, the brain area important for reward and motivation. It also modulates the D2 and
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These neurotransmitters have completely different functions in different brain areas, but many pharmacological treatments reduce or elevate their concentrations everywhere.
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The use of DBS for depression followed a much more common use of DBS in the subthalamic nucleus for people with Parkinson’s disease.
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DBS stimulation has produced immediate symptom relief in thousands of such Parkinson’s patients without the side effects that occur with pharmacological therapies.
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Brain scans of schizophrenic people show activity in their auditory cortex during such auditory hallucinations. This suggests that an internal source in the brain is generating activity in auditory areas that the schizophrenic person cannot distinguish from something she actually hears.
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 Nicotine, as from cigarettes, is a nicotinic agonist, and cigarette smoking, as a form of self-medication, is prevalent among people with schizophrenia. Research suggests a specific defect in the alpha-7 nicotinic acetylcholine receptor as the major molecular cause of schizophrenia.
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Typical symptoms of OCD include washing excessively (particularly hand washing), repeatedly checking for something undone or missing, and performing everyday activities—such as dining or washing—in a ritualistic way. OCD is also associated with traits such as hoarding, preoccupation with sexual or religious thoughts, and irrational aversions, such as extreme fear of germs.
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Other dopamine agents include modafinil, L-phenylalanine L-tyrosine, biopterin, and pyridoxal-phosphate.
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Caffeine: Commonly
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and alertness. It has a marginal paradoxical protective effect against Parkinson’s disease, for unknown reasons.
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Parkinson’s disease the basal ganglia were the original target areas. The assumption
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was that artificial stimulation could restore subnormal neural activity from dopamine
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how it works, the results of DBS in many patients have been dramatic. Parkinson’s patients who exhibit the typical stooped posture and shuffling gate with the stimulator turned off are able
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walk and engage in sports almost immediately when the current pulses are turned on.
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DBS treatments
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phosphenes
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oscillations
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endorphins (internal pain reduction neurotransmitters)
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Stem cells that will release dopamine have been injected into the substantia nigra of Parkinson’s patients with mixed success.
Part V: The Part of Tens
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Overriding reflexes is essential to locomotion, which consists of deliberately falling forward (unbalancing) and catching yourself by extending one, then the other leg in a repeated cycle.
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neural circuitry detects errors between what is “programmed” by the frontal lobes for a particular movement and what is actually executed, which depends on variables like loads and uneven ground while walking. It uses error computation to achieve correct sequences in motor behavior based on practice.
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If you plan to rearrange the furniture in your house, the cerebellum is activated during this planning.
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central pattern generators (CPGs).
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The basal ganglia (refer to Chapter 9) are the primary controllers of behavior, using the neocortex to generate alternative motor plans and the cerebellum to carry them out. The basal ganglia receive inputs via the outer nuclei (striatum—caudate and putamen), which project to inner nuclei, mainly the globus pallidus. The output of the basal ganglia is chiefly from these inner nuclei to the thalamus, and it’s primarily inhibitory to areas of the frontal lobe that generate commands for controlling motor behavior. The substantia nigra and subthalamic nuclei perform a crucial modulatory role in this system.
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Optogenetics (refer to Chapter 4) controls neural activity by activating light-sensitive channels in neural membranes. These light-sensitive channels typically come from microbes that have evolved them to control some behavior, such as moving toward or away from light.
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Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) and transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) are two types of brain stimulation.
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Deep brain stimulation was first tried for Parkinson’s disease according to the idea that if the output of a single, small brain nucleus (the substantia nigra) was deficient, perhaps just elevating its output artificially with current pulses that increased neural firing would compensate for its low output. This turned out to work. The results of deep brain stimulation have led to new ideas about how the basal ganglia system works.
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microscopy, which is also used in non-living sections, can image living cells in brain slices or even
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the locus of a genetic mutation behind a neural dysfunction does not automatically translate into a treatment regime because the function of the protein encoded may be unknown and embedded in a complex regulatory system whose operation is poorly known.
Index
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