17 questions about Neuroscience, and their answers

Neurosciences are, in many aspects, the basis of current psychology, which allows the theories and models that try to explain behavior and mental processes to be structured. Knowing how the nervous system works, and in particular our brain, helps to raise hypotheses that we can test through research.

In this article you will find a collection of questions on neuroscience, useful to review the basic concepts related to this field of knowledge.

• Related article: "The 35 Psychology Questions You Should Be Able To Answer"

17 questions about neuroscience

These questions are not arranged in order according to a specific criteria, feel free to start answering them wherever you want.

1. What is brain plasticity?

Is about the ability of the brain to withdraw to new situations, whether they have to do with changes in the environment (for example, going to live in another ecosystem) or if they have to do with changes in their own morphology (for example, due to injuries).

• Related article: "Brain plasticity (or neuroplasticity): what is it?"

2. What is the most abundant cell type in the brain?

It's about the glial cells, which fulfill a wide variety of functions, including supporting neurons.

3. What type of memory is the hippocampus not involved in?

Memories based on memorization of movements of the body, as well as those that are fundamentally the load emotional experience of an experience, do not concern the hippocampus, and are rather related to the amygdala and lymph nodes basal.

4. What differentiates hormones from neurotransmitters?

Neurotransmitters are fundamentally so because act as information transmission mechanisms between neurons, and as such they travel through the synaptic space, exerting its effects quickly. Hormones, on the other hand, travel through the blood, and take longer to reach a place where they trigger an effect. This is one of the questions about neurosciences that are based on knowledge not limited to the nervous system.

5. Approximately how many neurons are in the brain of an adult human being?

There are about 80 billion neurons.

6. At what stage of life do neurons in the brain have the most connections with each other?

This occurs during the first months of life. Soon after, through a genetically programmed pruning system, many of these synaptic connections disappear.

7. What structures of the brain are most related to emotions?

These correspond to the limbic system: the hypothalamus, the amygdala, the septum, the fornix and the cingulate gyrus.

8. What kinds of emotions and sensations do dopamine and GABBA produce?

This is a trick question, since each neurotransmitter does not have specific sensations associated with it. All of them can have different effects, depending on the context in which they are used.

9. What is the corpus callosum?

It is the part of the brain that joins both hemispheres of the brain, causing the axons of neurons to pass from one side to the other.

10. What is the color of the so-called “white matter” of the nervous system?

What gives it this characteristic color is, fundamentally, the myelin, which covers the axons of neurons to make nerve impulses travel through them faster.

11. Why are there the side effects of psychotropic drugs?

These effects appear, fundamentally, because the molecules released by these compounds reach areas of the body that are not interested in affecting to solve the problem that the treatment.

12. Is it possible to know a person's personality from images of brain activity obtained with fMRI?

No, this type of nervous activity study techniques do not serve to predict well the behavior of people, although in some cases can help provide some probability-based information.

13. What is the Penfield homunculus?

It is a representation of the brain mapping in which the groups of neurons that process the tactile sensations of each of these areas, and those that send movement orders to the muscles in these areas.

• You may be interested: "Penfield's sensory and motor homunculi: what are they?"

14. Which lobe of the brain is basically dedicated to the processing of visual information?

It is the occipital lobe, located at the back of the brain. It is dedicated to working with the "raw" data that enters through the visual system.

15. Are there pain detectors in the brain?

No, and therefore it is possible that small parts of your nervous tissue break without any discomfort being noticed.

16. When does the interconnection system of neurons in the brain stop changing?

In humans, never, or at least while alive. Even sleeping, there are connections that are strengthened and others that are weakened.

17. Is the size of the brain compared to the rest of the body related to intelligence?

Yes, but only up to a point. When the differences in size are not very noticeable, this relationship is diluted.