N4 Chapter 1 Review Questions
Question N4.1. What are the brain ventricles, and what functions have been ascribed to them over the ages?
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They are hollow, liquid-filled parts of the brain. From ancient Roman times up to the Middle Ages they were believed to be the location of the four great fluids, called humors. The pressure and balance of the humors were thought to account for behavior. We now know that this is untrue, and that they instead serve as a cushion for the brain (protection).
Question N4.2. What experiment did Bell perform to show that the nerves of the body contain a mixture of sensory and motor fibers?
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Bell performed an experimental ablation where the nerves meet the spinal cord. Just before attaching, each nerve branches off into two distinct roots (dorsal and ventral) that quickly rejoin, and he cut these roots separately: cutting only the ventral roots paralyzed the muscles, so the ventral roots carry the motor fibers. Magendie furthered this by showing that the dorsal roots carry sensory information into the spinal cord.
Question N4.3. What did Flourens’ experiments suggest were the functions of the cerebrum and cerebellum?
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The cerebrum was responsible for sensorial data and the self, while the cerebellum was for motor control/movement of muscles.
Question N4.4. What is an “animal model”?
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An animal that is close enough to humans by ancestry, thus allowing for experimentation on said animal to determine things about humans.
Questions 5–7 weren’t copied out; only their answers were written down:
- 5. Speech.
- 6. Molecular, cellular, systems, behavioral, and cognitive.
- 7. Observation, replication, interpretation, verification.
Further Reading
- Allman JM. 1999. Evolving Brains. New York: Scientific American Library.
- Clarke E, O’Malley C. 1968. The Human Brain and Spinal Cord, 2nd ed. Los Angeles: University of California Press.
- Corsi P, ed. 1991. The Enchanted Loom. New York: Oxford University Press.
- Crick F. 1994. The Astonishing Hypothesis: The Scientific Search for the Soul. New York: Macmillan.
- Finger S. 1994. Origins of Neuroscience. New York: Oxford University Press.
- Glickstein M. 2014. Neuroscience: A Historical Introduction. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.