Discuss how ideas about stress immunization evolved into the realization that maternal behavior actually plays an important role in mediating the effect of early stress, citing both animal and human research.
Beginning with a description of the organization of the retina in terms of the distribution of rods and cones, and their connections to bipolar cells, and then to retinal ganglion cells, explain how an experiment demonstrated retinotopic mapping in the primary visual cortex, and how that mapping is not faithful to the area occupied by the fovea vs. the periphery of the retina.
Discuss the evidence in favor of the glutamate and dopamine hypotheses of schizophrenia. Are these ideas mutually exclusive? Explain.
Describe the symptoms of patient D.F., including the general location of her lesion, and how that supports the notion that visual processing can be divided into two streams.
Using the sight of a scorpion and beginning at the retinal ganglion cells, explain how information is processed by the visual system, the amygdala, and then the amygdala’s target brain regions to generate the overt expression, feelings, and hormonal changes that accompany fear. Be sure to mention the “short-cut” and “long-road” visual pathways to the amygdala.
Describe how sensory converges on, and is processed by, the amygdala to enable fear conditioning, with a foot shock as a US and a tone as the CS, such that the CS ultimately elicits the hormonal, autonomic, and behavioral manifestations of fear. Use a diagram if necessary.
