The Synapse and Chemical Transmission
(3.2 in text + Parkinson's disease pages)
Groups of neurotransmitters and examples
Steps necessary for neuron’s to be able
to chemically transmit their messages (synthesis, transport,
storage, release, binding to receptors, inactivation and/or
reuptake)
2 categories of post-synaptic receptors
and the differences in the effects produced by their
activation (ionotropic vs metabotropic)
Drug actions by affecting chemical
transmission
Parkinson’s disease as both an example
of neurotransmitter related disorder and using drugs to alter
neurotransmitters (249-253)
characteristics of the disease
cause of the disease
treatments
What we have learned about PD from
unusual cases (like the frozen addicts)
Ions inside and outside of neuron and how that difference is maintained
The Action Potential Module
2.2
Ions inside and outside
of neuron and how that difference is maintained
Resting potential
Depolarization vs
hyperpolarization
Voltage-activated Ion
channels in axon membrane
How the action potential
is produced in axon
Characteristics of the
action potential
Threshold
All or none law
Refractory period
(absolute and relative)
Myelin sheaths, nodes of
ranvier and how they affect the action potential process
; saltatory conduction
Examples of situations
where ion channels aren’t working properly
Examples of conditions
where myelin deteriorates and how it affects neuron messages
Ca++ channels in axon
terminal, when they open and what the Ca++ triggers
The electrical
responses of dendrites
Ionotropic receptors
EPSP
IPSP
summation of incoming
messages (temporal and spatial)
metabotropic receptors
and their effects
Chapter 7
How sensory receptors have become
specialized to respond to something other than a
neurotransmitter message
Which sensory receptors make use of
ionotropic mechanisms, which are metabotropic
Characteristics of sound waves
Parts of ear and how they transmit
sound input
Structure of cochlea and the hair
cells in the organ of Corti on the basilar membrane
What triggers the electrical
responses of the hair cells
Stops along the auditory pathway to
cortex (superior olives, inferior colliculus, medial
geniculate of thalamus)
How having 2 ears helps in sound
localization
Frequency, volley and place theories
of pitch perception
Organization of auditory cortex
2 types of deafness
The sensory organs and receptors of
the vestibular system and what they respond to
The characteristics and types of
taste receptors
Individual differences in taste
sensitivity
The difference between experiencing
taste and experiencing flavor
Location and characteristics of
olfactory receptors
What is anosmia (and
specific anosmias)?
Chapter 6
The characteristics of light waves
The parts of the eye
The structure of the retina
the receptor sites
on rods and cones
The differences between rods and
cones
3 theories of color vision and where
each seems to apply
the basis for color
blindness/deficiency
The route taken by visual messages
through brain
What is the difference between the
“dorsal stream” and the “ventral stream”? The
possible Middle stream?
Damage to different parts of the
visual pathways can lead to different losses of visual
ability? What happens in each of these cases?
Primary visual cortex totally
damaged
Dorsal
stream/parietal damage
Ventral stream/Inferior temporal
cortex/fusiform gyrus damaged