Exam 7: The Nervous System and Neuronal Excitability

The doctor taps your leg just below your knee to test your reflexes. Your leg swings out at about the same time you perceive that your leg was tapped because of a

Saltatory conduction is different from continuous conduction because it

A surgeon is repairing damage to an individual's abdominal area, and accidentally connects a nerve that originally controlled the smooth muscle of the GI tract to the skeletal muscle of the abdominal wall. Hypothesize what might happen in this instance.

You are working with some new neural cells and accidentally spill a few drops of a chemical solution into the petri dish. Shortly afterwards, you notice an increase in graded potentials in the cells. You hypothesize that the channels responsible for these graded potentials are

How can one tell if action potentials are generated by a threshold or suprathreshold stimuli?

How does increasing the extracellular calcium concentration lead to a decrease in excitability?

An individual touches a sharp object and cries out in pain, but is unable to pull her hand away from the object. In this situation, the _________ neurons are the most likely reason she cannot respond.

Summation of postsynaptic potentials determines whether or not an action potential will be generated at the axon hillock. The final amplitude of the summed potentials is dependent upon

Which of the following is NOT a type of graded potential?

An investigator is trying to slow the rate of infection of neurons by the herpes simplex virus. Which of these proteins in the neuron could she target to prevent the virus from reaching the cell body where it could replicate?

In the synaptic end bulb, the action potential leads to the release of neurotransmitter. What links these two types of signals?

A cell with leak channels that are only permeable to Cl^- has been placed in a petri dish. Which of the following statements accurately describes the relationship between the concentration gradient and the Cl^- equilibrium potential (E_Cl)?

A scientist discovers that a neuron does not have adequate stores of neurotransmitter. What part of the neuron is he observing?

Assume the potentials from the following combinations of dendrites reach the axon hillock/trigger zone at the same time. Which combination will have the greatest chance of generating an action potential?

In a dendroaxonic synapse the part of the postsynaptic cell receiving the signal is the

A major function of the nervous system is communication that allows our bodies to maintain homeostasis. In many cases reflexes will occur without our awareness. Which function of the nervous system is bypassed in this case?

Speed of conduction of action potentials along an axon is increased in

The resting membrane potential is a measure of charge difference across the unstimulated cell membrane. This charge difference can exist because

Anionic proteins and phosphates have little influence over the resting membrane potential (RMP) because

Retrograde and anterograde transport occur in the