Course Introduction
Psychology of the Brain Practice Questions
Psychology of the Brain explores the intricate relationship between brain function and behavior, examining how neural processes underpin cognitive abilities, emotions, and everyday actions. This course delves into key topics such as neuroanatomy, neurotransmission, brain development, sensory perception, memory, and the biological bases of psychological disorders. Students will gain an understanding of how scientific research and cutting-edge technologies contribute to our knowledge of the brain, and how this knowledge informs therapeutic approaches, mental health treatments, and our overall understanding of human nature.
Recommended Textbook
Biopsychology 9th Edition by John P.J. Pinel
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18 Chapters
2676 Verified Questions
2676 Flashcards
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Page 2
Chapter 1: Biopsychology as a Neuroscience: What is
Biopsychology, Anyway?
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89 Verified Questions
89 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) The primary symptom of Korsakoff's syndrome is A) severe memory loss.
B) epilepsy.
C) insomnia.
D) dehydration.
E) obesity.
Answer: A
Q2) A major shortcoming of case-study research is that A) it is always done on sick people.
B) it cannot be applied to laboratory animals.
C) it is too general.
D) the degree to which the results can be generalized is unclear.
E) both A and B
Answer: D
Q3) Many psychophysiological measures are indicators of the activity of the __________ nervous system, which regulates the body's inner environment.
Answer: autonomic
Q4) The study of nervous system disorders is called __________.
Answer: neuropathology
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Chapter 2: Evolution, Genetics, and Experience: Thinking About the Biology of Behavior
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146 Verified Questions
146 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) Monozygotic twins are more commonly called __________ twins even though they are not.
Answer: identical
Q2) Fitness in the Darwinian sense refers to an organism's ability to A) survive and contribute large numbers of fertile offspring to the next generation. B) remain healthy.
C) win fights.
D) survive.
E) avoid predation.
Answer: A
Q3) The first twittering efforts of young songbirds are often called A) clucking.
B) sing-song.
C) babbling.
D) subsong.
E) dialectic.
Answer: D
Q4) All body cells of a human normally contain __________ pairs of chromosomes.
Answer: 23
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Chapter 3: The Anatomy of the Nervous System
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153 Verified Questions
153 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) The back of your head is
A) posterior.
B) dorsal.
C) inferior.
D) anterior.
E) ventral.
Answer: A
Q2) Compare Golgi and Nissl neuroanatomical stains, emphasizing the strengths and weaknesses of each.
Answer: 25% for describing Golgi staining
25% for describing Nissl staining
50% for comparing the strengths and weaknesses of the two stains
Q3) The discovery of the Golgi stain
A) was accidental.
B) was one of the major early breakthroughs in the study of the nervous system.
C) occurred in 1995.
D) all of the above
E) both A and B
Answer: E
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Page 5
Chapter 4: Neural Conduction and Synaptic Transmission
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152 Verified Questions
152 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) Sodium-potassium pumps are
A) integrators.
B) refractory.
C) transporters.
D) excitatory.
E) inhibitory.
Q2) There are two kinds postsynaptic potentials : EPSPS and __________.
Q3) Drugs that degrade vesicles and cause the neurotransmitter molecules to leak into the cytoplasm, where they are destroyed by enzymes, are
A) receptor blockers.
B) agonists of the neurotransmitter.
C) antagonists of the neurotransmitter.
D) autoreceptor blockers.
E) amino acids.
Q4) Vesicles travel from the cell body to the buttons
A) on action potentials.
B) along microtubules.
C) at a rate of about 40 centimeters per second.
D) at a rate of about 40 centimeters per day.
E) both B and D
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Chapter 5: The Research Methods of Biopsychology
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161 Verified Questions
161 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) In the open-field test, thigmotaxia is often used as a measure of A) body temperature.
B) fearfulness.
C) sexual motivation.
D) obesity.
E) aggression.
Q2) The discovery of conditioned taste aversion challenged the A) principle of equipotentiality.
B) belief that temporal contiguity is necessary for conditioning.
C) the engram theory of memory.
D) all of the above
E) both A and B
Q3) Extracellular unit recording provides information about A) the magnitude of the membrane potential.
B) the wave form of action potentials.
C) EPSPs.
D) all of the above
E) none of the above
Q4) Gene __________ techniques are used to create organisms that lack particular genes.
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Chapter 6: The Visual System
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149 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) Rattlesnakes can see in
A) what for humans would be complete darkness.
B) what for snakes is complete darkness.
C) infrared light.
D) both A and C
E) both B and C
Q2) The existence of complementary color afterimages supports
A) the opponent-process theory.
B) the component theory.
C) the trichromatic theory.
D) a hierarchical model.
E) spatial-frequency theory.
Q3) Dual-opponent color cells are found in peg-like columns called __________.
Q4) Most lateral geniculate neurons terminate in
A) the primary visual cortex.
B) cortical layer IV.
C) the contralateral hemisphere.
D) both A and B
E) both A and C
Q5) The belief that __________ is specific to faces has been challenged.
Page 8
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Chapter 7: Mechanisms of Perception
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150 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) Various parts of olfactory receptor cells can be found
A) in the nasal passages.
B) in the olfactory mucosa.
C) passing through the cribriform plate.
D) in the olfactory bulb.
E) all of the above
Q2) A system in which information is conducted in a single route through its various components - like a string through beads - is called a A) parallel system.
B) functional system.
C) hierarchical system.
D) serial system.
E) none of the above
Q3) Taste receptors typically occur in clusters of 50 to 100. These clusters are called A) glomeruli.
B) taste buds.
C) taste receptor nuclei.
D) papillae.
E) taste mucosas.
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Page 9
Chapter 8: The Sensorimotor System
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119 Verified Questions
119 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) The particularly large pyramidal neurons of primary motor cortex are known as __________ cells.
Q2) Which of the following receives information from various parts of the cortex and feeds it back to motor cortex?
A) basal ganglia
B) cerebellum
C) red nucleus
D) reticular formation
E) substantia nigra
Q3) Recent fMRI studies have changed the traditional view of the cerebellum by suggesting that in addition to its sensorimotor functions it is involved in A) motor learning.
B) control and learning of cognitive responses.
C) learning motor sequences.
D) correcting motor sequences.
E) integrating motor sequences.
Q4) __________ inhibition is mediated by Renshaw cells and helps distribute the work among the motor neurons of a muscle's motor pool.
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Chapter 9: Development of the Nervous System
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125 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) Discuss the developmental progression from totipotency, to pluripotency, to multipotency, to total specification. Why are embryonic stem cells so interesting to medical researchers?
Q2) When it comes to synaptogenesis, neurons display a substantial degree of A) specificity.
B) promiscuity.
C) monogamy.
D) faithfulness.
E) inertia.
Q3) Early monocular deprivation
A) eliminates ocular dominance columns.
B) decreases the width of ocular dominance columns from the deprived eye.
C) increases the width of ocular dominance columns from the nondeprived eye.
D) causes ocular dominance columns to develop sooner.
E) both B and C
Q4) Approximately 80% of children with __________ are male; 50% suffer from mental retardation; and 35% experience seizures.
Q5) Discuss the effects of early experience on neurodevelopment, and describe two examples.
Page 11
Q6) The growth of new neurons in adults is called adult __________.
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Chapter 10: Brain Damage and Neuroplasticity
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181 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) In a car accident, a woman banged the front of her head on the steering wheel. A subsequent CT scan revealed a subdural hematoma over the left occipital lobe. The woman clearly had suffered a A) contrecoup injury.
B) contusion.
C) concussion.
D) both A and B
E) both A and C
Q2) The main evidence that release from inhibition is a mechanism of neural reorganization after brain damage is that reorganization A) can occur very quickly.
B) occurs in only inhibitory structures.
C) is particularly prevalent in the cortex.
D) all of the above
E) both B and C
Q3) __________ mice are mice into which the genes of another species have been introduced.
Q4) __________ is the brain's most prevalent excitatory neurotransmitter.
Q5) __________ is a degenerative brain disorder that attacks CNS myelin.
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Chapter 11: Learning, Memory, and Amnesia
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Sample Questions
Q1) The human medial temporal lobe includes the hippocampus, the __________, and the medial temporal cortex.
Q2) Explicit memories for the particular events or experiences of one's life are __________ memories.
A) semantic
B) procedural
C) episodic
D) remote
E) implicit
Q3) The NMDA receptor is a type of __________ receptor.
A) serotonin
B) glutamate
C) dopamine
D) GABA
E) nitric oxide
Q4) Posttraumatic amnesia for events that occur in the period after a concussive blow to the head is called __________ amnesia.
Q5) Many __________ cells are located in hippocampus, whereas many grid cells are located in the entorhinal cortex.
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Chapter 12: Hunger, Eating, and Health
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145 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) Animals in the wild tend to eat a balanced diet because they
A) have an innate preference for all foods that contain critical toxins.
B) have an innate preference for the taste of all critical vitamins and minerals.
C) learn to prefer the tastes of all of the vitamins and minerals that are good for them.
D) recognize the tastes of all of the vitamins and minerals that were in their mother's milk.
E) none of the above
Q2) Eating sweet and fatty foods is adaptive for many mammals living in the wild because in nature these tastes
A) are characteristic of energy-rich foods.
B) are often found in association with beneficial vitamins and minerals.
C) are only rarely associated with high-calorie foods.
D) both A and B
E) both B and C
Q3) Demonstrations that small amounts of food increase hunger are referred to as the __________ effect.
Q4) Large, bilateral lesions of the __________ hypothalamus produce hyperphagia and obesity.
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Page 14
Chapter 13: Hormones and Sex
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158 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) Orchidectomy
A) immediately eliminates the ability of all patients to achieve an erection.
B) immediately eliminates the sexual motivation of all patients.
C) reduces the recidivism rate of sex offenders.
D) immediately eliminates interest in sexual activity in all patients.
E) gradually reduces vaginal lubrication.
Q2) Hormones influence sexual behavior by
A) directing the development of many of the anatomical, physiological, and behavioral characteristics that distinguish one as male or female.
B) activating the reproduction-related behavior of sexually mature adults.
C) dividing into two separate pools, male hormones and female hormones, which have opposite, mutually exclusive effects.
D) all of the above
E) both A and B
Q3) Dihydrotestosterone is a __________ androgen, which means that it cannot be converted to estradiol.
Q4) __________ hormones can readily penetrate cell membranes because their molecules are small and fat soluble.
Q5) Sparse pubic and axillary hair is a symptom of __________.
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Chapter 14: Sleep, Dreaming, and Circadian Rhythms
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187 Verified Questions
187 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) Normally, the fifth stage of sleep EEG to be reached after a person falls asleep at night is stage __________.
Q2) According to the text,
A) Freud viewed dreams as symbolic representations of repressed sexual conflict.
B) there is no convincing evidence for Freud's theory of dreams.
C) Freud's view of dreams is widely accepted by the general public.
D) all of the above
E) none of the above
Q3) Which of the following is a causal factor in some cases of insomnia?
A) sleeping pills
B) sleep apnea
C) nocturnal myoclonus
D) restless legs
E) all of the above
Q4) Microsleeps are usually about __________ long.
A) 3 seconds
B) 25 seconds
C) 1 minute
D) 5 minutes
E) 7 minutes
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Chapter 15: Drug Addiction and the Brains Reward Circuits
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153 Verified Questions
153 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) Some drugs can be effectively administered through mucous membranes. One such drug is
A) cocaine.
B) heroin.
C) morphine.
D) nicotine.
E) caffeine.
Q2) The Harrison Narcotics Act, which was passed in the U.S. in 1914, unintentionally encouraged the use of
A) Aspirin.
B) Street's Infant Quietness.
C) cocaine.
D) opium.
E) heroin.
Q3) A problem faced by theories of drug conditioning is predicting
A) the direction of conditioned effects.
B) whether or not there is a conditional stimulus.
C) whether or not there is an unconditional stimulus.
D) whether conditioned or contingent tolerance will develop.
E) who will become addicted.
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Chapter 16: Lateralization, Language, and the Split Brain
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Sample Questions
Q1) The inability to pronounce simple nonsense words is a symptom of __________ dyslexia.
Q2) In comparison to English speakers, Italian speakers are less likely to be diagnosed as __________.
Q3) The ground-breaking experiment of Myers and Sperry established that A) one function of the corpus callosum is to transmit learned information between hemispheres.
B) the key to studying the function of the cerebral commissures is to develop experimental procedures for presenting information to one hemisphere while keeping it out of the other.
C) one hemisphere is capable of solving simple problems as rapidly as two hemispheres working together.
D) the cerebral hemispheres are capable of functioning independently. E) all of the above
Q4) The sodium amytal test and the __________ test are both widely used tests of language lateralization.
Q5) The left planum temporale corresponds roughly to __________.
Q6) The discovery of the lateralization of language abilities is usually attributed to __________ although Dax preceded him.
Page 18
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Chapter 17: Biopsychology of Emotion, Stress, and Health
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154 Verified Questions
154 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) Patients with bilateral amygdalar damage tend to have particular difficulty
A) experiencing fear.
B) expressing fear prosody.
C) recognizing facial expressions of fear.
D) with contextual fear conditioning.
E) with auditory fear conditioning.
Q2) Stressors produce major increases in the release of
A) norepinephrine from the adrenal cortex.
B) epinephrine from the adrenal cortex.
C) glucocorticoids from the adrenal medulla.
D) all of the above
E) none of the above
Q3) Describe five different types of aggressive and defensive behavior in rats and the situations in which they occur. Why is it important to make these distinctions?
Q4) When conspecific threat is a continuous feature of daily life, it produces __________ stress.
Q5) Brief stressors increase blood levels of __________, which play a role in inflammation and fever
Q6) Unlike false smiles, Duchenne smiles always involve the __________ muscles.
Page 19
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Chapter 18: Biopsychology of Psychiatric Disorders
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Sample Questions
Q1) M.R., the woman who was afraid to go out; she had a pathological fear of public places and open spaces. She suffered from the common phobic anxiety disorder:
Q2) Prozac is a slight structural variation of
A) tricyclic antidepressants.
B) lithium.
C) neuroleptics.
D) phenothiazines.
E) MAO inhibitors.
Q3) Unlike reserpine, chlorpromazine does not
A) reduce the extracellular levels of dopamine.
B) increase dopamine levels.
C) produce Parkinsonian side effects.
D) cause dementia.
E) function as a dopamine antagonist.
Q4) The agonistic effects of __________ on GABAA receptors are thought to account for the clinical effectiveness of this class of drugs on anxiety disorders.
Q5) Antischizophrenic drugs, such as clozapine, that do not have a high affinity for D2 receptors are called __________ neuroleptics.
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