Deck 3: The Body Senses

Question 1

Which sense informs us about the attitude and movement of the head?

A) Kinesthesis
B) Proprioception
C) Vestibular sense
D) Nociception

Answer 1

C

Question 2

Which statement about vestibular receptors is true?

A) They generate action potentials
B) They have an onion-like capsule
C) They have a high resting potential
D) Their stereocilia are all the same length

Answer 2

C

Question 3

When the stereocilia of a vestibular receptor deflect towards its kinocilium, the cell:

A) Depolarises and excites adjoining nerve cells
B) Hyperpolarises and inhibits adjoining nerve cells
C) Increases firing rate and excites adjoining nerve cells
D) Increases firing rate and inhibits adjoining nerve cells

Answer 3

A

Question 4

Which term does not describe angular rotation of the head:

A) Roll
B) Yaw
C) Pitch
D) Vection

Question 5

The semicircular canals provide information about:

A) Angular acceleration
B) Gravitational vertical
C) Linear acceleration
D) Pitch, yaw, and roll at constant velocities

Question 6

In the vestibular labyrinth:

A) The three semicircular canals all lie in the same plane
B) The utricle and saccule are oriented horizontally
C) The three semicircular canals are oriented at right-angles
D) The utricle and saccule are oriented vertically

Question 7

Shearing force in the otolith organs is generated by:

A) Linear velocity
B) Rotational velocity
C) Rotational acceleration
D) Linear acceleration

Question 8

Which two events can cause an identical response in the otolith organs

A) Linear acceleration and static head tilt
B) Linear velocity and static head tilt
C) Rotational acceleration and static head tilt
D) Rotational velocity and static head tilt

Question 9

Which of the following is not a projection site for cells in the vestibular nuclei of the brainstem

A) The cerebellum
B) The thalamus
C) The spinal cord
D) The cortex

Question 10

Which fluid-filled chambers and canals make up the vestibular labyrinth?

A) One otolith organ and three semicircular canals
B) Two otolith organs and three semicircular canals
C) Three otolith organs and one semicircular canal
D) Three otolith organs and two semicircular canals

Question 11

Vestibular receptors do not play a role in:

A) Signalling body movements at a constant speed
B) Reflex actions
C) Motion sickness
D) Stabilising retinal images

Question 12

The contact of a water drop on the hand can be sensed about half a second before its temperature because:

A) Signals in the lemniscal pathway travel more slowly than those in the spinothalamic pathway
B) Signals in the spinothalamic pathway travel more slowly than those in the lemniscal pathway
C) Temperature signals are delayed by a relay to the thalamus
D) Temperature signals are delayed by a relay in the spinal cord

Question 13

How many kinds of receptor under the skin serve the somatosensory system?

A) 2
B) 3
C) 4
D) 5

Question 14

Which statement is false? Merkel's disks on a small area of the right finger project to cortical cells:

A) That also receive inputs from Meissner corpuscles
B) That have both excitatory and inhibitory responses
C) Via a relay in the thalamus
D) In Brodmann's area 3
E) In the somatosensory cortex of the left hemisphere

Question 15

Which touch mechanoreceptors have slow temporal responses best suited to signalling stable, unchanging mechanical stimulation?

A) Merkel's disks
B) Pacinian corpuscles
C) Nociceptors
D) Muscle spindles

Question 16

The cortical organisation of somatosensory neurons was discovered during brain surgery to relieve:

A) Migraine
B) Epilepsy
C) Chronic pain
D) Neuralgia

Question 17

The arousing effects of pain are probably mediated by a projection from the thalamus:

A) To the reticular formation, pons, and midbrain
B) To Rexed's lamina II in the spinal cord
C) To Brodmann's area 3
D) To the cerebellum

Question 18

Which statement about cortical topographic maps of somatosensory space is false?

A) The maps vary across species
B) In humans, the part of the map representing the hands contains cells with small receptive fields
C) In humans, a relatively small area of the map contains cells with receptive fields on the face
D) Moving over the somatosensory cortex from left ear to right, systematically maps the right then left sides of the body

Question 19

The haptic identification of hand-sized, everyday objects is usually:

A) Rapid (<5sec), and accurate
B) Slow (>5 sec) and inaccurate
C) Unreliable because touch perception is dominated by vision
D) Inaccurate because the resolving power of the fingertips low

Question 20

Which pathway from the vestibular nuclei uses signals from the semicircular canals to mediate reflex movements of the neck and trunk?

A) Vestibulo-spinal system
B) Vestibulo-ocular system
C) Vestibulo-thalamic system
D) Vestibulo-cerebellar system