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Neurobiology of Consciousness
Homework 5
Problem 1. How is sensory information is encoded by neurons in the peripheral nervous system?
How is motor information is encoded by neurons in the peripheral nervous system?
At the firing rate of 10Hz, how many action potentials are fired in a second?
A single action potential is using 1 billion ATPs. Suppose that all 100 billion neurons in the brain fire at 10Hz.
How many ATPs are used in a second?
Hydrolysis of a single ATP molecule releases about 10-19 Joule of energy. How much energy per second
(Joule/sec) would such a theoretical brain release?
A real brain produces about 20Watt of energy. (1 Watt = 1 Joule / 1 sec). Calculate the percentage of neurons
that fire at 10Hz (assume that other neurons do not fire at all).
Problem 2. List one or more CNS examples of information encoding via action potentials firing rate.
Problem 3. Why are we saying that NMDA channels are coincidence detectors?
Problem 4. Name a few examples of pacemaker cells outside of CNS?
Problem 5. Explain the similarities and differences between the generalized and partial seizure in terms of their
frequency and location in the brain.
Problem 6. How many action potentials can neurons fire at the peak of gamma wave?
Neurobiology of Consciousness
Homework 5
Problem 7. How many action potentials can neurons fire at the peak of beta wave?
Problem 8. How many action potentials can neurons fire at the peak of theta wave?
Problem 9. How many action potentials can neurons fire at the peak of delta wave?
Problem 10. Draw a spectrogram (time frequency graph) of gamma synchronization occurring between 4 and 6
seconds
Problem 11. Draw a spectrogram (time frequency graph) of beta synchronization occurring between 3 and 5
seconds
Neurobiology of Consciousness
Homework 5
Problem 12. You are a corporate lawyer tasked with finding all copyrighted pictures that belong to you
company and illegally used by competitors. You quickly scrolled through a new illustrated magazine published
by your company. (you only viewed each illustration for a short period of time, less than a second). Later you
scroll through a competitor’s magazine that have used some of your pictures that you need to identify. Discuss
the probability of you remembering pictures published in your company’s magazine in terms of theta rhythm
and hippocampus.
Problem 13. You are looking at the bistable image face vase illusion. Discuss the synchronization of neurons
encoding the vase, faces.
Problem 14. Think of one of your strongest memory. How many neurons in your cortex are encoding that
memory?
where are they located?
Is it one neuronal ensemble? many ensembles?
Problem 15. Now you are in the fMRI and you are asked to imagine and describe that memory. Where will the
fMRI show most active area of the brain?