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Carrie Heath
Questions for test #2
1. What were the results of the experiments performed by Fatt and Katz when they did
not stimulate the skeletal muscle of the frog and when they did stimulate the muscle?
What can be concluded from the results of these two experiments? What was the
purpose of using curare in this experiment?
2. What two factors could account for the size of some MEPP’s amplitudes to be larger
than 4/10 mV?
3. What experiment could be done to show that the contents within some synaptic
vesicles are recycled? Are there any types of neurotransmitters that are not recycled,
and if so, what happens to them once they are released into the synaptic cleft?
4. What three experiments could be performed to show that the release of synaptic
vesicles is dependent upon Calcium release? What type of unconventional
neurotransmitter has been shown to decrease the amount of Calcium that is present in
the presynaptic axon terminal, and what are the effects of this decrease in Calcium?
5. A farmer comes into your office during planting season complaining of feeling
fatigue in his chest and difficulty breathing. Tests are conducted and show that the
man has been infected with a certain type of bacteria. What is this bacteria and why is
he having trouble breathing and feeling fatigue?
6. When Loewi conducted the experiment on the heart by stimulating the vagus nerve,
the heart slowed down as well as the second heart that was connected to the first by
ringers solution. What was the cause of this? What type of drug that we have
discussed in class could be used as a cholinergic antagonist, and what would be the
effect on the two hearts?
7. What are SNARE proteins and their functions? What types of toxins alter their
functions and how?
8. A patient is taking two types of drugs to help with a specific disorder. Drug A has a
very fast response but does not seem to last very long. Drug B takes a while longer to
take effect but seems to last much longer. If these drugs are binding to different types
of receptors, which type is each one binding to?
9. Taking into consideration what we have learned about the structure of ion channels,
how could a scientists learn the functions of the various channels, supposing they
were not known.(Hint: think about the subunits)
10. What types of defects could result from the disorganization and abnormal
concentrations of induction factors in the developing nervous system of the fetus?
11. The cortex of the brain has six different laminae. Once postmitotic neuroblasts are
born, how do they reach their final destination in the appropriate laminae?
12. What are the comparisons that can be made between the fruit fly and the human being
with regard to the expression of various genes?
13. In an Explant plate study, what could the possible substances be in one of the explant,
if the axons in the other explant are growing away from the second explant? What
could the substances be if the axons are growing towards the second explant?
14. If an experiment were conducted with a frog embryo in which there was an additional
limb bud added to the embryo, what would be observed from looking at a cross-
section of the spinal cord? Why would this result occur? What would be the case if
tissue was removed from the limb bud to begin with?
15. What could be the causes of neurons being unequally sensitive to the various types of
neurotrophic factors? How could you determine which neurotrophic factors seem to
influence which types of neurons the most? Are in vitro or in vivo the best studies to
do to get definite results? Explain your answer.
16. What are the major factors that contribute to the connections of neurons to their target
tissues and what kinds of problems could be seen if there was an absence or altering
of these factors?
17. What types of experiments can be done with Explant Plates and the Teflon
separations? What types of results and understandings could you obtain from these
experiments?
18. We discussed in class how important critical periods are in developing animals and
humans. What is the difference between an innate behavior, and a behavior that is
dependent upon a critical period? Give an example of each types of behavior. How
might innate behaviors be advantageous to living organisms?
19. What is the evidence that synapses show plasticity in their actions? Through our
understanding of studying about the hypothalamus and the cerebellum, what would be
advantageous about having plasticity in the actions of synapses? If this plasticity were
not present, what would some of the effects be?