Neuron & Vision Study Questions

1. If a neuron that starts with equal amounts of sodium (+) and chloride (-) ions outside and the same amounts of
-
potassium (+) and A ions inside, what will happen if the cell becomes permeable to chloride?.
a. nothing
b. it will become negative inside
c. it will become positive inside.

2. Suppose one pinched a retinal ganglion cell so hard that it fired madly and then died. The most likely sensation of the
individual would probably be one of
a. light or shadow
b. touch and pain
c. both a and b.

3. . Suppose that the top left figure (marked “figure”)

shows the pattern of light projected on a small portion figure a b
of the retina and the remaining figures (a-d) show where
there is activity of ganglion cells across the same region
of retina. Presence of a checkerboard pattern means
strong firing. Which pattern of activity is closest to
what would actually occur?
c d

4. Cortical V1 cells respond to short line segments in specific locations and having specific orientations. We showed in
lecture the circuit between thalamus and cortex that is thought to be the basis for this selective responsiveness. Suppose
that a given V1 neuron's best response is to the black bar shown as I in the figure at the right. If a black bar oriented as
shown in II were shown instead, how much would the recorded cell respond?

a. Not at all
b. A little bit
I
c. Just as much as it does to stimulus I. II

Retina or Field of Vision

 Yellow
Green Bright
blue red
Bright Grass Greenish Deep Red
Blue Reddish
blue green yellow Orange orange
violet

Red Orange Yellow

10
Relative Excitation

8
Pu
rp e
le eus
6 tr
har
4
C
2
Green Turquoise Blue
0
440 500 600
Wavelength (nM)
(nanometers)
Suppose we mix a greenish-yellow light of 540 nM with a bright red light of 620 nM that is 4 times brighter than the
greenish-yellow light. What color will we see? The following two questions will lead you to the right answer, hopefully:

5. The greenish yellow light causes an excitation of the middle wavelength receptors of ______ and an excitation of the
longs of _____. The bright red light will cause an excitation of the longs of ______. Taken together the shorts will
have virtually no excitation and the longs will be excited about ____ overall. Thus, the longs are excited about _____
times the amount of the middles.
a. 7, 10, 8 X 4, 42, 2
b. 10, 10, 20 X 4, 30, 10
c. 6, 6, 12 X 4, 10, 2
d. 9, 9, 5 X 4, 29, 3

6. Therefore, what color will be seen?

a. blue violet
b. greenish blue
c. yellow
d. orange
e. bright red

7. Suppose we mix yellow and blue lights of about equal intensity. What do we see?
a. green
b. colorless
c. yellow
d. red
e. pink

8. What prediction would you make from the wavelength dependence of visual receptor cells?
a. same thing
b. something different
c. the pattern of receptor cell activity does not match that produced by any wavelength of the spectrum.

This next one is something of a mind twister:

9. Our minds supposedly “see” color opponent cells, such as ganglion cells and do not have direct access to the activity of
color receptor cells. Is it ever possible by mixing lights of different colors to cause the activity profile of the receptor
cells to be that for one recognizable color but the activity profile of the color opponent cells to be that for some other
recognizable color?
a. yes
b. no
10. If the backward pathway from primary visual cortex (V1) to the lateral geniculate of thalamus were severed which of
the following would probably happen?
a.V1 cells would no longer respond to edges
b. V1 cells would continue to respond to edges, but they would not care what the orientation of the edge was
c. V1 cells would entirely cease to respond to visual stimuli
d. V1 cells would continue to respond normally to strong stimuli but would have no responses or would have weak
responses to stimuli that were hard to see.

11. The picture at the right has in it a square region in which the orientation is different
from that of the surround. Suppose one were recording from a V1 cell that responded to
lines that were located in this square region and that had an orientation tilted upward to
the right at an angle of about 45 degrees, as the lines in the little square are. Moreover,
suppose the picture were flashed on briefly and the subject were required to indicate
whether it did or did not see the little square. What pattern of activity would one expect to
see in the recorded cell in cases where the little square of differently oriented lines was
and was not seen?

a
b
c
d
e
0 240 0 240

Start of stim Start of stim

Reported NOT seen Reported Seen

12. Action potentials usually start at

a. the dendrites
b. the cell body
c. the beginning of the axon
d. part way down the axon

13. EPSPs recorded in a dendrite near where the synapses that produced the EPSP are located will be _________ than
EPSPs recorded at the soma and those will be _________ than EPSPs recorded at the start of the axon.
a. larger, larger
b. larger, smaller
c. smaller, larger
d. smaller, smaller

14. How large are action potentials recorded where they begin compared to ones recorded at the end of an axon?
a. smaller
b. larger
c. same size