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?