History of Neuroscience Questions
1. True or False: Franz Joseph Gall, who is credited with developing phrenology---a pseudoscientific approach that suggests you can predict details of someone's personality based on the size and shape of their skull---was a huckster with no scientific training who was simply out to make money.
- A. True
- B. False
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Correct answer: B
Although phrenology was controversial in its day, and now is considered pseudoscience, Gall was actually a highly-trained and very knowledgeable neuroanatomist and physician who made a number of important contributions to neuroanatomy. Even though his ideas about skull shape and personality were misguided, his hypothesis that certain functions are localized to specific areas of the cortex helped to shape ideas about the localization of brain function that became prominent in the 20th century.
2. What was the first neurotransmitter to be discovered?
- A. dopamine
- B. acetylcholine
- C. glycine
- D. serotonin
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Correct answer: B
In a famous experiment in 1921, Otto Loewi demonstrated that chemical signaling played a key role in neural communication by showing a chemical he called Vagusstoff could affect the activity of the vagus nerve. Prior to that experiment, many neuroscientists believed neural communication was only electrical. In 1936, Henry Dale isolated Loewi's Vagusstoff and named it acetylcholine.
3. Paul Broca's well-known patient, Victor Leborgne, had difficulty speaking voluntarily; his only voluntary speech consisted mostly of an utterance that sounded like the word:
- A. hat
- B. boat
- C. tan
- D. moon
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Correct answer: C
When Leborgne came under Broca's care, one of the only sounds he was able to make--unless antagonized, which could prompt him to curse--was an utterance that resembled the word "tan." Examining Leborgne's brain (after he died) helped Broca to identify the region that would eventually become known as Broca's area. Leborgne's verbal deficit would become known as Broca's aphasia.
4. This neuroscientist won the Nobel Prize in 1906 for helping to demonstrate that neurons are individual cells (instead of the nervous system being one continuous network of nerve fibers, as many believed in his time). He is also well known for his artistic renditions of neurons and nervous system structures.
- A. Camillo Golgi
- B. John Hughlings Jackson
- C. Charles Scott Sherrington
- D. Santiago Ramon y Cajal
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Correct answer: D
Santiago Ramon y Cajal helped to demonstrate that neurons are individual cells, and his work helped to disprove reticular theory, the idea that the nervous system is made up of one continuous network of nerve fibers. Ramon y Cajal was also well known for his beautiful drawings of neurons and nervous system structures.
5. This neuroscientist coined the term "synapse":
- A. Santiago Ramon y Cajal
- B. John Hughlings Jackson
- C. Eric Kandel
- D. Charles Scott Sherrington
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Correct answer: D
Sherrington coined the term "synapse." Sherrington had originally planned to use the term syndesm to describe the functional junction between neurons, but a friend suggested synapse, from the Greek meaning "to clasp," since it "yields a better adjectival form."
6. Alan Hodgkin and Andrew Huxley won the Nobel Prize in 1963 for helping understand how the flow of ions across the cell membrane of a neuron leads to an action potential. What organism were their most famous experiments conducted with?
- A. squid
- B. mouse
- C. frog
- D. fruit fly
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Correct answer: A
Hodgkin and Huxley studied action potentials in the relatively enormous axons of the squid. They chose the squid because their largest axons (up to 1 mm in diameter) made studying action potentials much easier. Their work specifically explained how action potentials are generated and propagated in neurons, and they shared the Nobel Prize in 1963 with John Eccles (for his work on synaptic transmission).
7. This scientist made an important contribution to neuroscience with his improvements to "silver staining," a process that stains neurons in a way that made individual neurons clearly visible for the first time:
- A. Santiago Ramon y Cajal
- B. Paul Broca
- C. Camillo Golgi
- D. Eric Kandel
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Correct answer: C
Before the 1870s, scientists had little ability to obtain clear pictures of neurons due to the lack of a selective stain to make neurons appear distinct. Golgi developed a stain using silver nitrate, which caused neurons to appear dark against a yellow background. Golgi's stain led to the establishment of the fact that neurons are distinct cells, something that was very much up for debate before.
8. What two scientists are credited with discovering the motor cortex through their work with dogs?
- A. Hodgkin and Huxley
- B. Golgi and Sherrington
- C. Hubel and Wiesel
- D. Fritsch and Hitzig
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Correct answer: D
The discovery of the motor cortex is primarily credited to Gustav Fritsch and Eduard Hitzig. In 1870, Fritsch and Hitzig conducted experiments with dogs that demonstrated part of the cerebral cortex was directly responsible for causing movement; that region of the cortex would eventually be known as the motor cortex.
9. This scientist's famous experiments with frogs in the 18th century helped to demonstrate that the function of nerves depends on electric currents:
- A. Luigi Galvani
- B. Alessandro Volta
- C. Nikola Tesla
- D. Camillo Golgi
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Correct answer: A
Luigi Galvani discovered that muscles contract in response to electrical stimulation, a phenomenon that he observed in frog legs. His work revealed that electricity plays a role in the nervous system, which was a critical step toward understanding neuronal physiology.
10. Alan Hodgkin and Andrew Huxley's experiments on the giant axons of this animal helped us to understand how neurons generate and transmit action potentials:
- A. elephant
- B. whale
- C. squid
- D. giraffe
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Correct answer: C
Hodgkin and Huxley performed their experiments on the giant axon of the squid. This axon is unusually large, which made it easier to insert electrodes and measure electrical changes, allowing them to uncover how action potentials are generated and transmitted.
11. The use of lobotomy as a psychiatric treatment in the mid-20th century declined rapidly after the development of which drug?
- A. lithium
- B. fluoxetine
- C. alprazolam
- D. chlorpromazine
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Correct answer: D
Chlorpromazine, introduced in the 1950s, was the first effective antipsychotic medication. Its ability to manage symptoms of schizophrenia and other psychiatric disorders provided a safer and more effective alternative to lobotomy, leading to a dramatic decline in the use of the surgical technique.
12. This substance, now recognized to be an important neurotransmitter, was first discovered in blood serum. Its name was derived from its presence in blood and its ability to cause blood vessel constriction:
- A. serotonin
- B. norepinephrine
- C. dopamine
- D. glutamate
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Correct answer: A
Serotonin was first discovered in blood serum in the late 1940s and found to cause blood vessels to constrict. It was named serotonin, with sero- referring to serum and -tonin referring to tone (as in vascular tone). It was initially thought that serotonin's only role was in regulation of the circulatory system, but it was later discovered to play a key role in the nervous system as a neurotransmitter.
