PhD in Neuroscience – admission exam

Written test session – April 1st, 2003

 

Please select 3 issues you are most interested in, and discuss them, devoting no more than two pages to each. Discuss each issue on separate pages, clearly marked with the issue number.

 

You have 3 hours.

 

Do not mark your sheets with any sign that can lead to your identification.

 

1) Discuss different receptors for the transmitter glutamate, highlighting how distinct receptors may confer special properties to synaptic transmission.

 

2) Discuss intrinsic (genetics) and extrinsic (environmental) factors contributing to the development of an adult neuronal network: give an example.

 

3) Discuss how changes of an ion channel may modify neuronal signaling.

 

4) There is a lot of talking about interdisciplinary approaches in Neuroscience.
What is your view? Why is interdisciplinarity important?

 

5) What is the major contribution of molecular biology to the understanding of the brain? Please discuss at least one example.

 

6) What are the advantages offered by the completion of the human genome sequence for the study of the nervous system?

 

7) What may be happening in the brain when I imagine a movement or an action?

What when I imagine the possible outcome(s) of a hypothetical situation?

 

8) Can you think of one case in which brain imaging techniques have advanced our understanding of a cognitive phenomenon?

 

9) Using any combination of existing methods (or even of future methods if you wish to imagine them) explain how you would determine that a specific brain region is involved in sensory processing, and how you would specify its exact function.

 

10) Can we represent somebody else's intentions and desires? With what mental mechanisms? Can you discuss how malfunctioning of our ability to represent other minds would look like?

 

11) How can a person be bilingual? What challenges does bilingualism pose for a linguistic theory? How could one approach the issue with neuroimaging methods?

 

12) "All men are Mortals. Socrates is a Man. Therefore, Socrates is Mortal".

"Socrates likes Garlic. I now smell Garlic. Socrates may be around".

Do you think the mental processes involved in these two arguments are crucially different? Can you imagine what may underlie them, in the brain?