Study Questions
by Scott Huettel
to accompany
Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Third Edition
Chapter 6: From Neuronal to Hemodynamic Activity
1. What is the difference between integrative and transmissive activity of neurons?
2. What is functional hyperemia?
3. What are glial cells? What role do they play in the brain?
4. What is ATP? What is it used for?
5. What is glycolysis? What steps are present in aerobic glycolysis? What steps are
present in anaerobic glycolysis?
6. What is meant by the “tripartite synapse”?
7. What is the molecule that carries oxygen within the bloodstream?
8. Which sorts of activity consume major portions of the brain’s energy budget?
9. What did Roy and Sherrington speculate about the physiological correlates of brain
function?
10. Describe the arterial system that supplies blood to the brain. Trace the flow of blood
from the major artery leaving the heart through the arteries supplying the brain. What
are the major cerebral arteries, and what parts of the brain do they support?
11. What are the major draining veins for the brain? What path does blood take in going
back to the heart?
12. What two types of neuroanatomical structures does the word “sinus” describe?
13. How does blood flow change throughout the vascular system? How does the brain
control blood flow?
14. How might neurons and neurotransmitters control blood flow directly?
15. Researchers have demonstrated that neuronal activity alters blood flow in vessels that
are some distance away from those neurons. What implications does this have for
fMRI and other techniques that measure brain hemodynamics?
16. Why is functional hyperemia critical for BOLD contrast?
17. What neuroanatomical terms are used to indicate the following directions: (1) front of
the brain, (2) back of the brain, (3) top of the brain, (4) bottom of the brain, (5) close
to the midline, and (6) close to the sides?
18. What are the three cardinal views of the brain called, and what directions do they
represent?
19. What are the five primary lobes of the cerebrum?
20. What are gyri and sulci?
21. What are Brodmann areas and how were they defined?