What was the population of Guinea-Bissau in 1950?

According to the 2010 revison of the UN World Population Prospects, Guinea-Bissau's population was 1,515,000 in 2010, compared to 518,000 in 1950. The proportion of the population below the age of 15 in 2010 was 41.3%, 55.4% were aged between 15 and 65 years of age, while 3.3% were aged 65 years or older.


What was the population of Guinea-Bissau in 2010?


What is the source of the population data?


What percentage of the population was below the age of 15?


What percentage of the population was 65 or older?


What natives comprise a very small percentage of the population?

Portuguese natives comprise a very small percentage of Guinea-Bissauans. After Guinea-Bissau gained independence, most of the Portuguese nationals left the country. The country has a tiny Chinese population. These include traders and merchants of mixed Portuguese and Chinese ancestry from Macau, a former Asian Portuguese colony.


Who left the country after Guinea-Bissau gained independence?


What ethnic group has a tiny population in Guinea-Bissau?


What is the name of a former Asian Portuguese colony?


What is the ancestry of the Chinese population in Guinea-Bissau?


What percentage of the population speaks Kriol?

14% of the population speaks the official language Portuguese, the language of government and national communication during centuries of colonial rule. 44% speak Kriol, a Portuguese-based creole language, which is effectively a national language of communication among groups. The remainder speak a variety of native African languages unique to ethnicities.


What is the official language of Guinea-Bissau?


How long was Guinea-Bissau under colonial rule?


What is the second language for most Portuguese in Guinea-Bissau?

Most Portuguese and Mestiços speak one of the African languages and Kriol as second languages. French is also taught in schools because Guinea-Bissau is surrounded by French-speaking nations. Guinea-Bissau is a full member of the Francophonie.


Who speaks both African languages and Kriol?


In the 20th century most people practiced some form of what faith?

Throughout the 20th century, most Bissau-Guineans practiced some form of Animism. In the early 21st century, many have adopted Islam, which is now practiced by 50% of the country's population. Most of Guinea-Bissau's Muslims are of the Sunni denomination with approximately 2% belonging to the Ahmadiyya sect.


What religion was adopted by the population in the early 21st century?


What percentage of the population now practices Islam?


What denomination are the majority of Guinea-Bissau's muslims?


What sect does 2% of the population belong to?


What percentage of the population is Christian?

Approximately 10% of the country's population belong to the Christian community, and 40% continue to hold Indigenous beliefs. These statistics can be misleading, however, as many residents practice syncretic forms of Islamic and Christian faiths, combining their practices with traditional African beliefs.


What percentage of the population continues to hold indigenous beliefs?


What forms of Islamic and Christian faiths do many residents practice?


What do many residents combine with Islamic and Christian practices?


What infection has a very small prevalence in Guinea-Bissau?

The prevalence of HIV-infection among the adult population is 1.8%. Only 20% of infected pregnant women receive anti retroviral coverage to prevent transmission to newborns.


What percentage of the adult population has an HIV-infection?


How many HIV-infected pregnant women receive retroviral coverage?


What does retroviral coverage help prevent?


Malaria kills more residents; 9% of the population have reported infection, It causes three times as many deaths as AIDS. In 2008, fewer than half of children younger than five slept under antimalaria nets or had access to antimalarial drugs.


What percentage of the population has Malaria?


How many more deaths does malaria cause vs. AIDS?


How many children under five slept under antimalaria nets in 2008?


What type of drugs did many young children not have access to in 2008?


What type of disease was reported to be on the rise in Guinea-Bissau?

Despite lowering rates in surrounding countries, cholera rates were reported in November 2012 to be on the rise, with 1,500 cases reported and nine deaths. A 2008 cholera epidemic in Guinea-Bissau affected 14,222 people and killed 225.


How many died from cholera in a November 2012 report?


How many died from cholera in a 2008 epidemic?


Where are there reported cholera rates that are lowering?


How many people were affected by the 2008 cholera epidemic?


What was the 2010 maternal mortality rate per 100,000 births?

The 2010 maternal mortality rate per 100,000 births for Guinea Bissau was 1000. This compares with 804.3 in 2008 and 966 in 1990. The under 5 mortality rate, per 1,000 births, was 195 and the neonatal mortality as a percentage of under 5's mortality was 24. The number of midwives per 1,000 live births was 3; one out of eighteen pregnant women die as a result of pregnancy. According to a 2013 UNICEF report, 50% of women in Guinea Bissau had undergone female genital mutilation. In 2010, Guinea Bissau had the 7th highest maternal mortality rate in the world.


What was the 1990 maternal mortality rate per 100,000 births?


How many midwives are listed per 1,000 live births?


How many pregnant women die as a result of pregnancy?


According to UNICEF, what percentage of women in Guinea-Bissau had undergone female genital mutilation?


What are the ages when education is compulsory?

Education is compulsory from the age of 7 to 13. The enrollment of boys is higher than that of girls. In 1998, the gross primary enrollment rate was 53.5%, with higher enrollment ratio for males (67.7%) compared to females (40%).


What was the gross primary enrollment rate in 1998?


What was the gross primary enrollment rate for males?


What was the gross primary enrollment rate for females?


What type of secondary schools does Guinea-Bissau have?

Guinea-Bissau has several secondary schools (general as well as technical) and a number of universities, to which an institutionally autonomous Faculty of Law as well as a Faculty of Medicine have been added.


What institutions have added a Faculty of Law?


What institutions have added a Faculty of Medicine?


What two words are used to describe the Faculty of Law and Faculty of Medicine?


What music genre is usually associated with Guinea-Bissau?

The music of Guinea-Bissau is usually associated with the polyrhythmic gumbe genre, the country's primary musical export. However, civil unrest and other factors have combined over the years to keep gumbe, and other genres, out of mainstream audiences, even in generally syncretist African countries.


What is considered the country's primary musical export?


What major factor has kept gumbe out of mainstream audiences?


What other type of countries has gumbe been kept out of?


What is the primary instrument of Guinea-Bissau?

The calabash is the primary musical instrument of Guinea-Bissau, and is used in extremely swift and rhythmically complex dance music. Lyrics are almost always in Guinea-Bissau Creole, a Portuguese-based creole language, and are often humorous and topical, revolving around current events and controversies, especially AIDS.


What type of music is the calabash used in?


What language are lyrics typically sung in?


What do typical song lyrics revolve around?


What is the main controversy found in song lyrics?


What is sometimes used as a generic word for any music of Guinea-Bissau?

The word gumbe is sometimes used generically, to refer to any music of the country, although it most specifically refers to a unique style that fuses about ten of the country's folk music traditions. Tina and tinga are other popular genres, while extent folk traditions include ceremonial music used in funerals, initiations and other rituals, as well as Balanta brosca and kussundé, Mandinga djambadon, and the kundere sound of the Bissagos Islands.


Gumbe fuses how many of the country's folk music traditions?


Other than gumbe, what are two popular music genres?


What sound comes from the Bissagos Islands?


What type of tradition includes ceremonial music used in funerals?


What grain is a staple for residents near the coast of Guinea-Bissau?

Rice is a staple in the diet of residents near the coast and millet a staple in the interior. Fish, shellfish, fruits and vegetables are commonly eaten along with cereal grains, milk, curd and whey. The Portuguese encouraged peanut production. Vigna subterranea (Bambara groundnut) and Macrotyloma geocarpum (Hausa groundnut) are also grown. Black-eyed peas are also part of the diet. Palm oil is harvested.


What grain is a staple for residents in the interior of Guinea-Bissau?


Who encouraged peanut production in Guinea-Bissau?


What kind of pea is part of the diet in Guinea-Bissau?


What are common dishes in Guinea-Bissau?

Common dishes include soups and stews. Common ingredients include yams, sweet potato, cassava, onion, tomato and plantain. Spices, peppers and chilis are used in cooking, including Aframomum melegueta seeds (Guinea pepper).


What are common ingredients in Guinea-Bissau?


What are spices, peppers and chilis used in?


Who is an internationally renowned film director from Guinea-Bissau?

Flora Gomes is an internationally renowned film director; his most famous film is Nha Fala (English: My Voice). Gomes's Mortu Nega (Death Denied) (1988) was the first fiction film and the second feature film ever made in Guinea-Bissau. (The first feature film was N’tturudu, by director Umban u’Kest in 1987.) At FESPACO 1989, Mortu Nega won the prestigious Oumarou Ganda Prize. Mortu Nega is in Creole with English subtitles. In 1992, Gomes directed Udju Azul di Yonta, which was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 1992 Cannes Film Festival. Gomes has also served on the boards of many Africa-centric film festivals.


What year was the first feature film made in Guinea-Bissau?


Who directed the first feature film in Guinea-Bissau?


What is the grid plan aligned with rather than the cardinal directions?

This article covers numbered east-west streets in Manhattan, New York City. Major streets have their own linked articles; minor streets are discussed here. The streets do not run exactly east–west, because the grid plan is aligned with the Hudson River rather than with the cardinal directions. "West" is approximately 29 degrees north of true west.


In this article, how many degrees north of true west is "West?"


Does this article cover east-west or north-south streets?


Which streets have their own linked articles?


The numbered streets carry crosstown traffic. In general, even-numbered streets are one-way eastbound and odd-numbered streets are one-way west. Several exceptions reverse this. Most wider streets carry two-way traffic, as do a few of the narrow ones.


Odd-numbered streets are one-way in which direction?


Do most wide streets carry one-way or two-way traffic?


What happens at Broadway below 8th Street?

Streets' names change from West to East (for instance, East 10th Street to West 10th Street) at Broadway below 8th Street, and at Fifth Avenue from 8th Street and above.


What happens at Fifth Avenue from 8th street and above?


Do streets' names change from West to East or North to South?


The grid covers the length of the island from what starting point?

Although the numbered streets begin just north of East Houston Street in the East Village, they generally do not extend west into Greenwich Village, which already had streets when the grid plan was laid out by the Commissioners' Plan of 1811. Streets that do continue farther west change direction before reaching the Hudson River. The grid covers the length of the island from 14th Street north.


Which street do numbered streets begin just north of?


In what village is East Houston Street located?


Which Village already had streets when the grid plan was laid out?


What is the highest numbered street on Manhattan Island?

220th Street is the highest numbered street on Manhattan Island. Marble Hill is also within the borough of Manhattan, so the highest street number in the borough is 228th Street. However, the numbering continues in the Bronx up to 263rd Street. The lowest number is East First Street—which runs in Alphabet City near East Houston Street—as well as First Place in Battery Park City.


What is the highest street number within the borough of Manhattan?


What is the highest street number in the Bronx?


What is the spot where the grid takes hold called?

East 1st Street begins just North of East Houston Street at Avenue A and continues to Bowery. Peretz Square, a small triangular sliver park where Houston Street, First Street and First Avenue meet marks the spot where the grid takes hold.


What shape is the sliver park where Houston Street, First Street, and First Avenue meet?


Which street begins just North of East Houston Street at Avenue A?


East 1st Street begins just North of East Houston Street at Avenue A and continues to where?


East 6th Street continues further Eastward and connects to which Drive?

East 2nd Street begins just North of East Houston Street at Avenue C and also continues to Bowery. The East end of East 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 7th Streets is Avenue D, with East 6th Street continuing further Eastward and connecting to FDR Drive.


Where is the East end of East 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 7th Streets?


Which Avenue is the starting location for East 2nd Street?


Which street begins just North of East Huston Street and continues to Bowery?


What name did 3rd Street previously hold?

The west end of these streets is Bowery and Third Avenue, except for 3rd Street (formerly Amity Place; to Sixth Avenue) and 4th Street (to 13th Street), which extend west and north, respectively, into Greenwich Village. Great Jones Street connects East 3rd to West 3rd.


Which village do 3rd and 4th Street extend into?


Which street connects East 3rd to West 3rd?


The west end of these streets is Third Avenue and where?


Which Apartments interrupt East 5th Street between First Avenue and Avenue A?

East 5th Street goes west to Cooper Square, but is interrupted between Avenues B and C by The Earth School, Public School 364, and between First Avenue and Avenue A by the Village View Apartments.


What is the Public School number that interrupts East 5th Street?


Which school interrupts East 5th Street?


East 5th Street goes west to what stopping point?


West 8th Street is an important local street for what activity?

8th and 9th Streets run parallel to each other, beginning at Avenue D, interrupted by Tompkins Square Park at Avenue B, resuming at Avenue A and continuing to Sixth Avenue. West 8th Street is an important local shopping street. 8th Street between Avenue A and Third Avenue is called St Mark's Place, but it is counted in the length below.


8th Street between Avenue A and Third Avenue is called what?


Which park interrupts 8th and 9th Street at Avenue B?


Which bus operates on 10th Street between Avenues D and A and between West Street and Sixth Ave?

10th Street (40°44′03″N 74°00′11″W / 40.7342580°N 74.0029670°W / 40.7342580; -74.0029670) begins at the FDR Drive and Avenue C. West of Sixth Avenue, it turns southward about 40 degrees to join the Greenwich Village street grid and continue to West Street on the Hudson River. Because West 4th Street turns northward at Sixth Avenue, it intersects 10th, 11th and 12th and 13th Streets in the West Village. The M8 bus operates on 10th Street in both directions between Avenue D and Avenue A, and eastbound between West Street and Sixth Avenue. 10th Street has an eastbound bike lane from West Street to the East River. In 2009, the two-way section of 10th Street between Avenue A and the East River had bicycle markings and sharrows installed, but it still has no dedicated bike lane. West 10th Street was previously named Amos Street for Richard Amos. The end of West 10th Street toward the Hudson River was once the home of Newgate Prison, New York City's first prison and the United States' second.


Does the two-way section of 10th Street have a dedicated bike lane?


The end of what road was once home to Newgate Prison?


What was the name of the United States' second prison?


Which street runs from Broadway to West Street?

11th Street is in two parts. It is interrupted by the block containing Grace Church between Broadway and Fourth Avenue. East 11th streets runs from Fourth Avenue to Avenue C and runs past Webster Hall. West 11th Street runs from Broadway to West Street. 11th Street and 6th Avenue was the location of the Old Grapevine tavern from the 1700s to its demolition in the early 20th century.


When was the Old Grapevine tavern demolished?


11th Street and 6th Avenue was the home of what tavern from the 1700s?


What church interuppts 11th Street between Broadway and Fourth Avenue?


13th Street is divided into how many parts?

13th Street is in three parts. The first is a dead end from Avenue C. The second starts at a dead end, just before Avenue B, and runs to Greenwich Avenue, and the third part is from Eighth Avenue to Tenth Avenue.


The first part of 13th Street is a dead end from which Avenue?


Where does the second part of 13th Street end?


Which street has its third section between Eighth Avenue and Tenth Avenue?


14th Street is a main numbered street in Manhattan. It begins at Avenue C and ends at West Street. Its length is 3.4 km (2.1 mi). It has six subway stations:


How many subway stations are on 14th Street?


What is the length of 14th Street in miles?


15th Street starts at FDR Drive, and 16th Street starts at a dead end half way between FDR Drive and Avenue C. They are both stopped at Avenue C and continue from First Avenue to West Street, stopped again at Union Square, and 16th Street also pauses at Stuyvesant Square.


Which road starts at a dead end half way between FDR Drive and Avenue C?


Which Square stops both 15th and 16th Streets?


What is unusual about the traffic between Broadway and Park Avenue South on 17th Street?

On 17th Street (40°44′08″N 73°59′12″W / 40.735532°N 73.986575°W / 40.735532; -73.986575), traffic runs one way along the street, from east to west excepting the stretch between Broadway and Park Avenue South, where traffic runs in both directions. It forms the northern borders of both Union Square (between Broadway and Park Avenue South) and Stuyvesant Square. Composer Antonín Dvořák's New York home was located at 327 East 17th Street, near Perlman Place. The house was razed by Beth Israel Medical Center after it received approval of a 1991 application to demolish the house and replace it with an AIDS hospice. Time Magazine was started at 141 East 17th Street.


Does traffic on 17th Street generally run one way or two ways?


What was the job of the person who lived at 327 East 17th Street?


What was Antonin Dvorak's New York home replaced with after it was demolished?


What is at the crossing of 18th Street and Seventh Avenue?

18th Street has a local subway station at the crossing with Seventh Avenue, served by the 1 2 trains on the IRT Broadway – Seventh Avenue Line. There used to be an 18th Street station on the IRT Lexington Avenue Line at the crossing with Park Avenue South.


Which train line do the 1 2 trains serve?


Which train line used to have an 18th Street Station at the crossing with Park Avenue South?


20th Street starts at Avenue C, and 21st and 22nd Streets begin at First Avenue. They all end at Eleventh Avenue. Travel on the last block of the 20th, 21st and 22nd Streets, between Tenth and Eleventh Avenues, is in the opposite direction than it is on the rest of the respective street. 20th Street is very wide from the Avenue C to First Avenue.


At which Avenue do 21st and 22nd Streets begin?


What is different about 20th Street between Avenue C and First Avenue?


Which street is much wider from Avenue C to First Avenue?


How does traffic travel on the last block of the 20th, 21st, and 22nd Streets?


Which Street is also known as Police Officer Anthony Sanchez Way?

Between Second and Third Avenues, 21st Street is alternatively known as Police Officer Anthony Sanchez Way. Along the northern perimeter of Gramercy Park, between Gramercy Park East and Gramercy Park West, 21st Street is known as Gramercy Park North.


What is 21st Street known as along the northern perimeter of Gramercy Park?


Between what avenues is 21st Street known by Police Officer Anthony Sanchez Way?


Which police officer does a section of 21st Street refer to?


23rd Street is another main numbered street in Manhattan. It begins at FDR Drive and ends at Eleventh Avenue. Its length is 3.1 km/1.9m. It has two-way travel. On 23rd Street there are five local subway stations:


What is the length of 23rd Street in kilometers?


Does traffic move in one or two ways on 23rd Street?


How many local subway stations are on 23rd Street?


Which street is a pedestrian plaza between Third Avenue and Lexington Avenue?

24th Street is in two parts. 24th Street starts at First Avenue and it ends at Madison Avenue, because of Madison Square Park. 25th Street, which is in three parts, starts at FDR Drive, is a pedestrian plaza between Third Avenue and Lexington Avenue, and ends at Madison. Then West 24th and 25th Streets continue from Fifth Avenue to Eleventh Avenue (25th) or Twelfth Avenue (24th).


Which park is at the end of 24th Street and Madison Avenue?


After being interrupted, where do 24th and 25th Streets continue from?


27th Street is a one-way street runs from Second Avenue to the West Side Highway with an interruption between Eighth Avenue and Tenth Avenue. It is most noted for its strip between Tenth and Eleventh Avenues, known as Club Row because it features numerous nightclubs and lounges.


Which strip is known for its numerous nightclubs and lounges?


What is the strip of 27th Street between Tenth and Eleventh Avenues known as?


Does traffuc on 27th Street run one-way or two-ways?


How many blocks south of 27th Street is Manhattan's Meatpacking District?

In recent years, the nightclubs on West 27th Street have succumbed to stiff competition from Manhattan's Meatpacking District about fifteen blocks south, and other venues in downtown Manhattan.


Which businesses on 27th Street face competition from other venues in dowtown Manhattan?


What direction is Manhattan's Meatpacking District from West 27th Street?


The Fashion Institute of Technology is on the corner of 27th Street and what Avenue?

Heading east, 27th Street passes through Chelsea Park between Tenth and Ninth Avenues, with the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) on the corner of Eighth. On Madison Avenue between 26th and 27th streets, on the site of the old Madison Square Garden, is the New York Life Building, built in 1928 and designed by Cass Gilbert, with a square tower topped by a striking gilded pyramid. Twenty-Seventh Street passes one block north of Madison Square Park and culminates at Bellevue Hospital Center on First Avenue.


What year was the New York Life Building built?


Who designed the New York Life Building?


Which hospital is located at the end if 27th Street?


Which park does 27th Street pass through between Ninth and Tenth Avenues?


31st Street begins on the West Side at the West Side Yard, while 32nd Street, which includes a segment officially known as Korea Way between Fifth Avenue and Broadway in Manhattan's Koreatown, begins at the entrance to Penn Station and Madison Square Garden. On the East Side, both streets end at Second Avenue at Kips Bay Towers and NYU Medical Center which occupy the area between 30th and 34th Streets. The Catholic church of St. Francis of Assisi is situated at 135–139 West 31st Street. At 210 West is the Capuchin Monastery of St. John the Baptist, part of St. John the Baptist Church on 30th Street. At the corner of Broadway and West 31st Street is the Grand Hotel. The former Hotel Pierrepont was located at 43 West 32nd Street, The Continental NYC tower is at the corner of Sixth Avenue and 32nd Street. 29 East 32nd Street was the location of the first building owned by the Grolier Club between 1890 and 1917.


Which church is situated at 135-139 West 31st Street?


Who owned the building at 29 East 32nd Street between 1890 and 1917?


The corner of Broadway and West 31st Street is home to what business?


Which religios center is located at 210 West?


35th Street runs from FDR Drive to Eleventh Avenue. Notable locations include East River Ferry, LaptopMD headquarters, Mercy College Manhattan Campus, and Jacob K. Javits Convention Center.


On which street does LaptopMD headquarters sit?


On which street is the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center located?


Which street runs from FDR Drive to Eleventh Avenue?


What is the section of East 58th Street between Lexington and Second Avenues known as?

A section of East 58th Street 40°45′40.3″N 73°57′56.9″W / 40.761194°N 73.965806°W / 40.761194; -73.965806 between Lexington and Second Avenues is known as Designers' Way and features a number of high end interior design and decoration establishments, including


Which section of Eat 58th Street features high end interior design and decoration establishments?


Designers' Way occurs on East 58th Street between Lexington and which other Avenue?


Which street begins at East Drive, at Engineers Gate of Central Park?

90th Street is split into two segments. The first segment, West 90th Street begins at Riverside Drive and ends at Central Park West or West Drive, when it is open, in Central Park on the Upper West Side. The second segment of East 90th Street begins at East Drive, at Engineers Gate of Central Park. When East Drive is closed, East 90th Street begins at Fifth Avenue on the Upper East Side and curves to the right at the FDR Drive becoming East End Avenue. Our Lady of Good Counsel Church, is located on East 90th Street between Third Avenue and Second Avenue, across the street from Ruppert Towers (1601 and 1619 Third Avenue) and Ruppert Park. Asphalt Green, which is located on East 90th Street between York Avenue and East End Avenue.


Which church is located on East 90th Street between Second and Third Avenue?


Which towers are located at 1601 and 1619 Third Avenue?


What is located on East 90th Street between York Avenue and East End Avenue?


112th Street starts in Morningside Heights and runs from Riverside Drive to Amsterdam Avenue, where it meets the steps of the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine. The street resumes at the eastern edge of Morningside Park and extends through Harlem before ending at First Avenue adjacent Thomas Jefferson Park in East Harlem. Notable locations include:


Which street runs from Riverside Drive to Amsterdam Avenue?


Which road meets the steps of the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine?


Which library is Columbia University's largest?

114th Street marks the southern boundary of Columbia University’s Morningside Heights Campus and is the location of Butler Library, which is the University’s largest.


114th Street marks the southern boundary of which university's Morningside Heights Campus?


114th Street runs along which boundary of Columbia University's Morningside Heights Campus?


On which street is a private indoor pedestrian bridge between Amsterdam Avenue and Morningside Drive?

Above 114th Street between Amsterdam Avenue and Morningside Drive, there is a private indoor pedestrian bridge connecting two buildings on the campus of St. Luke's–Roosevelt Hospital Center.


Aove 114th Street is a private pedestrian bridge connecting two buildings from what organization?


A bridge connecting two of St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital Center's buildings crosses above which road?


40°48′27″N 73°57′18″W / 40.8076°N 73.9549°W / 40.8076; -73.9549 120th Street traverses the neighborhoods of Morningside Heights, Harlem, and Spanish Harlem. It begins on Riverside Drive at the Interchurch Center. It then runs east between the campuses of Barnard College and the Union Theological Seminary, then crosses Broadway and runs between the campuses of Columbia University and Teacher's College. The street is interrupted by Morningside Park. It then continues east, eventually running along the southern edge of Marcus Garvey Park, passing by 58 West, the former residence of Maya Angelou. It then continues through Spanish Harlem; when it crosses Pleasant Avenue it becomes a two‑way street and continues nearly to the East River, where for automobiles, it turns north and becomes Paladino Avenue, and for pedestrians, continues as a bridge across FDR Drive.


The Interchurch Center is the start of which street?


Morningside Park interrupts which street?


120th Street turns into Paladino Avenue and into a pedestrian bridge across what road?


Which memorial park divides 122nd Street?

40°48′32″N 73°57′14″W / 40.8088°N 73.9540°W / 40.8088; -73.9540 122nd Street is divided into three noncontiguous segments, E 122nd Street, W 122nd Street, and W 122nd Street Seminary Row, by Marcus Garvey Memorial Park and Morningside Park.


Which park divides 122nd Street along with Marcus Garvey Memorial Park?


How many segments is 122nd Street divided into?


Are 122nd Street's three segments contiguous or noncontiguous?


How many blocks west of Second Avenue does E 122nd Street run?

E 122nd Street runs four blocks (2,250 feet (690 m)) west from the intersection of Second Avenue and terminates at the intersection of Madison Avenue at Marcus Garvey Memorial Park. This segment runs in East Harlem and crosses portions of Third Avenue, Lexington, and Park (Fourth Avenue).


At which intersection does E 122nd Street terminate?


A segment of what road crosses portions of Third Avenue, Lexington, and Park and runs in East Harlem?


At which intersection does W 122nd Street terminate?

W 122nd Street runs six blocks (3,280 feet (1,000 m)) west from the intersection of Mount Morris Park West at Marcus Garvey Memorial Park and terminates at the intersection of Morningside Avenue at Morningside Park. This segment runs in the Mount Morris Historical District and crosses portions of Lenox Avenue (Sixth Avenue), Seventh Avenue, Frederick Douglass Boulevard (Eighth Avenue), and Manhattan Avenue.


How many blocks west from the intersection of Mount Morris Park does W 122nd Street run?


Through which historical district does W 122nd Street run?


What is an alternative name for Sixth Avenue?


W 122nd Street Seminary Row runs three blocks (1,500 feet (460 m)) west from the intersection of Amsterdam Avenue (Tenth Avenue) and terminates at the intersection of Riverside Drive. East of Amsterdam, Seminary Row bends south along Morningside Park and is resigned as Morningside Drive (Ninth Avenue). Seminary row runs in Morningside Heights, the district surrounding Columbia University, and crosses portions of Broadway and Claremont Avenue.


At which intersection does W 122nd Street end?


Which district surrounds Columbia University?


Besides the Union Theological Seminary, which other Seminary touches Seminary Row?

Seminary Row is named for the Union Theological Seminary and the Jewish Theological Seminary which it touches. Seminary Row also runs by the Manhattan School of Music, Riverside Church, Sakura Park, Grant's Tomb, and Morningside Park.


Other than the Jewish Theological Seminary, which other Seminary touches Seminary Row?


Which road runs by two Seminaries, the Manhattan School of Music, Riverside Church, and Grant's Tomb?


Who is the main character in Taxi Driver?

122nd Street is mentioned in the movie Taxi Driver by main character Travis Bickle as the location where a fellow cab driver is assaulted with a knife. The street and the surrounding neighborhood of Harlem is then referred to as "Mau Mau Land" by another character named Wizard, slang indicating it is a majority black area.


What street is mentioned in the movie Taxi Driver as the location where a cab driver is assaulted?


Which character in Taxi Driver deemed 122nd Street as "Mau Mau Land"?


What is the term given to 122nd Street by Wizard in Taxi Driver indicating the area is majority black?


Which neighborhood surrounds 122nd Street?


Which street in West Harlem runs just two blocks between Amersterdam Avenue and Claremont Avenue?

40°48′47″N 73°57′27″W / 40.813°N 73.9575°W / 40.813; -73.9575 La Salle Street is a street in West Harlem that runs just two blocks between Amsterdam Avenue and Claremont Avenue. West of Convent Avenue, 125th Street was re-routed onto the old Manhattan Avenue. The original 125th Street west of Convent Avenue was swallowed up to make the super-blocks where the low income housing projects now exist. La Salle Street is the only vestige of the original routing.


La Salle Street runs between Amsterdam Avenue and which other Avenue?


In which neighborhood does La Salle Street run?


Which street was swallowed up to make low income housing projects?


Which street is the only area left of the routing onto old Manhattan Avenue?


There is a small stretch of what road between Broadway and Twelfth Avenue?

40°48′52″N 73°56′53″W / 40.814583°N 73.947944°W / 40.814583; -73.947944 132nd Street runs east-west above Central Park and is located in Harlem just south of Hamilton Heights. The main portion of 132nd Street runs eastbound from Frederick Douglass Boulevard to northern end of Park Avenue where there is a southbound exit from/entrance to the Harlem River Drive. After an interruption from St. Nicholas Park and City College, there is another small stretch of West 132nd Street between Broadway and Twelfth Avenue


The main portion of what road runs eastbound from Frederick Douglass Boulevard to Park Avenue?


On what Avenue is a southbound exit and entrance to the Harlem River Drive?


West 132nd Street is interrupted by St. Nicholas Park and which college?


West 132nd Street is interrupted by City College and which park?


Who takes care of the 132nd Street Community Garden?

The 132nd Street Community Garden is located on 132nd Street between Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard and Malcolm X Boulevard. In 1997, the lot received a garden makeover; the Borough President's office funded the installation of a $100,000 water distribution system that keeps the wide variety of trees green. The garden also holds a goldfish pond and several benches. The spirit of the neighborhood lives in gardens like this one, planted and tended by local residents.


The 132nd Street Community Garden is located between Malcom X Boulevard and what other Boulevard?


In which year did the garden receive a makover with a water distribution system?


Who funded the 132nd Street Community Garden's water distribution system?


How much did the 132nd Street Community Garden's water distribution system cost?


What is the 132nd Street Bus Depot currently known as?

The Manhattanville Bus Depot (formerly known as the 132nd Street Bus Depot) is located on West 132nd and 133rd Street between Broadway and Riverside Drive in the Manhattanville neighborhood.


What was the Manhattanville Bus Depot formerly known as?


In which neighborhood is the Manhattanville Bus Depot?


The former 132nd Street Bus Depot is located between Broadway and what other drive in the Manhattanville neighborhood?


How many crosstown streets are mapped in the Commissioner's Plan of 1811?

155th Street is a major crosstown street considered to form the boundary between Harlem and Washington Heights. It is the northernmost of the 155 crosstown streets mapped out in the Commissioner's Plan of 1811 that established the numbered street grid in Manhattan.


Which street is the northernmost of the streets mapped in the Commissioner's Plan of 1811?


Which street forms the boundary between Harlem and Washington Heights?


What document established Manhattan's numbered street grid?


155th Street forms the boundary between Harlem and what other neighborhood?


155th Street starts on the West Side at Riverside Drive, crossing Broadway, Amsterdam Avenue and St. Nicholas Avenue. At St. Nicholas Place, the terrain drops off steeply, and 155th Street is carried on a 1,600-foot (490 m) long viaduct, a City Landmark constructed in 1893, that slopes down towards the Harlem River, continuing onto the Macombs Dam Bridge, crossing over (but not intersecting with) the Harlem River Drive. A separate, unconnected section of 155th Street runs under the viaduct, connecting Bradhurst Avenue and the Harlem River Drive.


155th Street crosses Broadway, Amsterdam Avenue, and what other Avenue?


How many meters long is the viaduct on which 155th Street travels?


In what year was the viaduct along 155th Street constructed?


A section of 155th Street connects Harlem River Drive and what Avenue?


181st Street runs through what neighborhood?

181st Street is a major thoroughfare running through the Washington Heights neighborhood. It runs from the Washington Bridge in the east, to the Henry Hudson Parkway in the west, near the George Washington Bridge and the Hudson River. The west end is called Plaza Lafayette.


What is the west end of 181st Street called?


Does Plaza Lafayette refer to the east or west end of 181st Street?


Which road runs from the Washington Bridge to the Henry Hudson Parkway?


In which direction is 181st Street largely residential?

West of Fort Washington Avenue, 181st Street is largely residential, bordering Hudson Heights and having a few shops to serve the local residents. East of Fort Washington Avenue, the street becomes increasingly commercial, becoming dominated entirely by retail stores where the street reaches Broadway and continues as such until reaching the Harlem River. It is the area's major shopping district.


In which direction is 181st Street mostly commercial?


Which street marks the western boundary of the shopping distrit?


Which river touches the major shopping district near 181st Street?


How many subway lines serve 181st Street?

181st Street is served by two New York City Subway lines; there is a 181st Street station at Fort Washington Avenue on the IND Eighth Avenue Line (A trains) and a 181st Street station at St. Nicholas Avenue on the IRT Broadway – Seventh Avenue Line (1 trains). The stations are about 500 metres (550 yd) from each other and are not connected. The George Washington Bridge Bus Terminal is a couple of blocks south on Fort Washington Avenue. 181st Street is also the last south/west exit in New York on the Trans-Manhattan Expressway (I-95), just before crossing the George Washington Bridge to New Jersey.


How many metres apart are 181st Street's two subway stations?


On what avenue is the George Wasington Bridge Bus Terminal?


Which road is the Trans-Manhattan Expressway's last south/west exit?


187th Street runs from Laurel Hill Terrace in the east to which avenue in the west?

187th Street crosses Washington Heights and running from Laurel Hill Terrace in the east to Chittenden Avenue in the west near the George Washington Bridge and Hudson River. The street is interrupted by a long set of stairs east of Fort Washington Avenue leading to the Broadway valley. West of there, it is mostly lined with store fronts and serves as a main shopping district for the Hudson Heights neighborhood.


Where do the stairs interrupting 187th street lead to?


An area of 187th Street serves as the main shopping district for which neighborhood?


Which is the eastmost intersection that 187th Street has?

187th Street intersects with, from East to West, Laurel Hill Terrace, Amsterdam Avenue, Audubon Avenue, St. Nicholas Avenue, Wadsworth Avenue, Broadway, Bennett Avenue, Overlook Terrace, Fort Washington Avenue, Pinehurst Avenue, Cabrini Boulevard and Chittenden Avenue.


Which is the westernmost intersection that 187th Street has?


Wadsworth Avenue is intersected by what street?


Which school is located on Cabrini Boulevard?

The many institutions on 187th Street include Mount Sinai Jewish Center, the Dombrov Shtiebel, and the uptown campus of Yeshiva University. The local public elementary school P.S. 187 is located on Cabrini Boulevard, just north of the eponymous 187th Street


Which University has a campus on 187th Street?


Cabrini Boulevard is just north of what street?


On what street is the Mount Sinai Jewish Center?


What is the center of the nervous system in all creatures?

The brain is an organ that serves as the center of the nervous system in all vertebrate and most invertebrate animals. Only a few invertebrates such as sponges, jellyfish, adult sea squirts and starfish do not have a brain; diffuse or localised nerve nets are present instead. The brain is located in the head, usually close to the primary sensory organs for such senses as vision, hearing, balance, taste, and smell. The brain is the most complex organ in a vertebrate's body. In a typical human, the cerebral cortex (the largest part) is estimated to contain 15–33 billion neurons, each connected by synapses to several thousand other neurons. These neurons communicate with one another by means of long protoplasmic fibers called axons, which carry trains of signal pulses called action potentials to distant parts of the brain or body targeting specific recipient cells.


What is the most complex organ in an animal's body?


In people, how many neurons make up the cerebral cortex?


Neurons in the brain interact with each other by fibers called what?


A few animals without spines that do not have a brain are what?


Hormones secreted are driven by what organ in the body?

Physiologically, the function of the brain is to exert centralized control over the other organs of the body. The brain acts on the rest of the body both by generating patterns of muscle activity and by driving the secretion of chemicals called hormones. This centralized control allows rapid and coordinated responses to changes in the environment. Some basic types of responsiveness such as reflexes can be mediated by the spinal cord or peripheral ganglia, but sophisticated purposeful control of behavior based on complex sensory input requires the information integrating capabilities of a centralized brain.


What type of responsiveness can be used without a brain?


Reflexes only require one of what two structures in a body?


Which part of a computer does the brain most resemble?

The operations of individual brain cells are now understood in considerable detail but the way they cooperate in ensembles of millions is yet to be solved. Recent models in modern neuroscience treat the brain as a biological computer, very different in mechanism from an electronic computer, but similar in the sense that it acquires information from the surrounding world, stores it, and processes it in a variety of ways, analogous to the central processing unit (CPU) in a computer.


This article compares the properties of brains across the entire range of animal species, with the greatest attention to vertebrates. It deals with the human brain insofar as it shares the properties of other brains. The ways in which the human brain differs from other brains are covered in the human brain article. Several topics that might be covered here are instead covered there because much more can be said about them in a human context. The most important is brain disease and the effects of brain damage, covered in the human brain article because the most common diseases of the human brain either do not show up in other species, or else manifest themselves in different ways.


Animals without a spine are called what?

The shape and size of the brain varies greatly in different species, and identifying common features is often difficult. Nevertheless, there are a number of principles of brain architecture that apply across a wide range of species. Some aspects of brain structure are common to almost the entire range of animal species; others distinguish "advanced" brains from more primitive ones, or distinguish vertebrates from invertebrates.


The easiest way to learn about brain anatomy is by what?

The simplest way to gain information about brain anatomy is by visual inspection, but many more sophisticated techniques have been developed. Brain tissue in its natural state is too soft to work with, but it can be hardened by immersion in alcohol or other fixatives, and then sliced apart for examination of the interior. Visually, the interior of the brain consists of areas of so-called grey matter, with a dark color, separated by areas of white matter, with a lighter color. Further information can be gained by staining slices of brain tissue with a variety of chemicals that bring out areas where specific types of molecules are present in high concentrations. It is also possible to examine the microstructure of brain tissue using a microscope, and to trace the pattern of connections from one brain area to another.


Brain tissue is naturally soft, but can be stiffened with what liquid?


The two main areas of the brain are what colors?


What instrument can you use to examine the microstructure of the brain?


Brains of organisms are made up mostly of what two classes of cells?

The brains of all species are composed primarily of two broad classes of cells: neurons and glial cells. Glial cells (also known as glia or neuroglia) come in several types, and perform a number of critical functions, including structural support, metabolic support, insulation, and guidance of development. Neurons, however, are usually considered the most important cells in the brain. The property that makes neurons unique is their ability to send signals to specific target cells over long distances. They send these signals by means of an axon, which is a thin protoplasmic fiber that extends from the cell body and projects, usually with numerous branches, to other areas, sometimes nearby, sometimes in distant parts of the brain or body. The length of an axon can be extraordinary: for example, if a pyramidal cell, (an excitatory neuron) of the cerebral cortex were magnified so that its cell body became the size of a human body, its axon, equally magnified, would become a cable a few centimeters in diameter, extending more than a kilometer. These axons transmit signals in the form of electrochemical pulses called action potentials, which last less than a thousandth of a second and travel along the axon at speeds of 1–100 meters per second. Some neurons emit action potentials constantly, at rates of 10–100 per second, usually in irregular patterns; other neurons are quiet most of the time, but occasionally emit a burst of action potentials.


Glial cells are also referred to as what?


Which of the two broad classes of cells: neurons and glial cells send signals to other cells?


What is the typical speed that axons send their electrical signals?


Axons send signals to other neurons by junctions known as what?

Axons transmit signals to other neurons by means of specialized junctions called synapses. A single axon may make as many as several thousand synaptic connections with other cells. When an action potential, traveling along an axon, arrives at a synapse, it causes a chemical called a neurotransmitter to be released. The neurotransmitter binds to receptor molecules in the membrane of the target cell.


The neurotansmitter binds to what of a target cell?


An axon can connect to how many other cells?


How many synapses does the human brain supposedly contain?

Synapses are the key functional elements of the brain. The essential function of the brain is cell-to-cell communication, and synapses are the points at which communication occurs. The human brain has been estimated to contain approximately 100 trillion synapses; even the brain of a fruit fly contains several million. The functions of these synapses are very diverse: some are excitatory (exciting the target cell); others are inhibitory; others work by activating second messenger systems that change the internal chemistry of their target cells in complex ways. A large number of synapses are dynamically modifiable; that is, they are capable of changing strength in a way that is controlled by the patterns of signals that pass through them. It is widely believed that activity-dependent modification of synapses is the brain's primary mechanism for learning and memory.


The fruit fly has a brain that has how many synapses?


A synapse whose purpose is to excite the target cell are called what?


Axons grouped together are known as what?

Most of the space in the brain is taken up by axons, which are often bundled together in what are called nerve fiber tracts. A myelinated axon is wrapped in a fatty insulating sheath of myelin, which serves to greatly increase the speed of signal propagation. (There are also unmyelinated axons). Myelin is white, making parts of the brain filled exclusively with nerve fibers appear as light-colored white matter, in contrast to the darker-colored grey matter that marks areas with high densities of neuron cell bodies.


An axon that can greatly increase speed of signals is wrapped in what?


Most of the space in the brain is made up of what structures?


Grey matter of the brain consist of lots of what?


Creatures that have a diffuse nerve net are called what?

Except for a few primitive organisms such as sponges (which have no nervous system) and cnidarians (which have a nervous system consisting of a diffuse nerve net), all living multicellular animals are bilaterians, meaning animals with a bilaterally symmetric body shape (that is, left and right sides that are approximate mirror images of each other). All bilaterians are thought to have descended from a common ancestor that appeared early in the Cambrian period, 485-540 million years ago, and it has been hypothesized that this common ancestor had the shape of a simple tubeworm with a segmented body. At a schematic level, that basic worm-shape continues to be reflected in the body and nervous system architecture of all modern bilaterians, including vertebrates. The fundamental bilateral body form is a tube with a hollow gut cavity running from the mouth to the anus, and a nerve cord with an enlargement (a ganglion) for each body segment, with an especially large ganglion at the front, called the brain. The brain is small and simple in some species, such as nematode worms; in other species, including vertebrates, it is the most complex organ in the body. Some types of worms, such as leeches, also have an enlarged ganglion at the back end of the nerve cord, known as a "tail brain".


A nerve cord with an enlargement is called what?


What type of creature has a ganglion at the back end of the nerve cord as well?


A name for a group of primitive flatworms is what?

There are a few types of existing bilaterians that lack a recognizable brain, including echinoderms, tunicates, and acoelomorphs (a group of primitive flatworms). It has not been definitively established whether the existence of these brainless species indicates that the earliest bilaterians lacked a brain, or whether their ancestors evolved in a way that led to the disappearance of a previously existing brain structure.


Some bilaterians without a brain are what?


Which two groups of invertebrates have complex brains?

Two groups of invertebrates have notably complex brains: arthropods (insects, crustaceans, arachnids, and others), and cephalopods (octopuses, squids, and similar molluscs). The brains of arthropods and cephalopods arise from twin parallel nerve cords that extend through the body of the animal. Arthropods have a central brain with three divisions and large optical lobes behind each eye for visual processing. Cephalopods such as the octopus and squid have the largest brains of any invertebrates.


Arthropods and cephalopods have brains that come from a pair of what?


The invertebrates with the largest brain are what two animals?


Which brains are easier to work on, vertebrates or invertebrates?

There are several invertebrate species whose brains have been studied intensively because they have properties that make them convenient for experimental work:


How long ago did the first vertebrate organisms appear?

The first vertebrates appeared over 500 million years ago (Mya), during the Cambrian period, and may have resembled the modern hagfish in form. Sharks appeared about 450 Mya, amphibians about 400 Mya, reptiles about 350 Mya, and mammals about 200 Mya. Each species has an equally long evolutionary history, but the brains of modern hagfishes, lampreys, sharks, amphibians, reptiles, and mammals show a gradient of size and complexity that roughly follows the evolutionary sequence. All of these brains contain the same set of basic anatomical components, but many are rudimentary in the hagfish, whereas in mammals the foremost part (the telencephalon) is greatly elaborated and expanded.


During which scientific period did vertebrates appear?


The foremost part of the brain in mammals is known as what?


At how many mya did mammals first appear in time?


Do predators have larger or smaller brains compared to their prey?

Brains are most simply compared in terms of their size. The relationship between brain size, body size and other variables has been studied across a wide range of vertebrate species. As a rule, brain size increases with body size, but not in a simple linear proportion. In general, smaller animals tend to have larger brains, measured as a fraction of body size. For mammals, the relationship between brain volume and body mass essentially follows a power law with an exponent of about 0.75. This formula describes the central tendency, but every family of mammals departs from it to some degree, in a way that reflects in part the complexity of their behavior. For example, primates have brains 5 to 10 times larger than the formula predicts. Predators tend to have larger brains than their prey, relative to body size.


In mammals, brain volume and body mass follows a power law with an exponent of what?


Which group of animals have brains 5-10 times larger than the formula predicts?


The forebrain during development is known as what?

All vertebrate brains share a common underlying form, which appears most clearly during early stages of embryonic development. In its earliest form, the brain appears as three swellings at the front end of the neural tube; these swellings eventually become the forebrain, midbrain, and hindbrain (the prosencephalon, mesencephalon, and rhombencephalon, respectively). At the earliest stages of brain development, the three areas are roughly equal in size. In many classes of vertebrates, such as fish and amphibians, the three parts remain similar in size in the adult, but in mammals the forebrain becomes much larger than the other parts, and the midbrain becomes very small.


The midbrain during development is known as what?


The hindbrain during development is known as what?


Which group of animals does the forebrain grow the largest?


During development, the brain is made up of three swellings at the front of what?


Brain tissue that is living is what color on the outside?

The brains of vertebrates are made of very soft tissue. Living brain tissue is pinkish on the outside and mostly white on the inside, with subtle variations in color. Vertebrate brains are surrounded by a system of connective tissue membranes called meninges that separate the skull from the brain. Blood vessels enter the central nervous system through holes in the meningeal layers. The cells in the blood vessel walls are joined tightly to one another, forming the blood–brain barrier, which blocks the passage of many toxins and pathogens (though at the same time blocking antibodies and some drugs, thereby presenting special challenges in treatment of diseases of the brain).


Brains are surrounded by what system of tissues?


Meninges separate what structure from the brain?


The blood-brain barrier is made up of what?


People who study the anatomy of the central nervous system are known as what?

Neuroanatomists usually divide the vertebrate brain into six main regions: the telencephalon (cerebral hemispheres), diencephalon (thalamus and hypothalamus), mesencephalon (midbrain), cerebellum, pons, and medulla oblongata. Each of these areas has a complex internal structure. Some parts, such as the cerebral cortex and the cerebellar cortex, consist of layers that are folded or convoluted to fit within the available space. Other parts, such as the thalamus and hypothalamus, consist of clusters of many small nuclei. Thousands of distinguishable areas can be identified within the vertebrate brain based on fine distinctions of neural structure, chemistry, and connectivity.


The cerebral hemispheres of the brain are called what?


The thalamus and hypothalamus comprise what region of the brain?


The midbrain region of the brain is known as what?


Clusters of small nuclei comprise what parts of the brain?


The forebrain is everted in what type of fishes?

Although the same basic components are present in all vertebrate brains, some branches of vertebrate evolution have led to substantial distortions of brain geometry, especially in the forebrain area. The brain of a shark shows the basic components in a straightforward way, but in teleost fishes (the great majority of existing fish species), the forebrain has become "everted", like a sock turned inside out. In birds, there are also major changes in forebrain structure. These distortions can make it difficult to match brain components from one species with those of another species.


Which part of the brain has led to many distortions among different species?


A mammal's brain is how many times larger than a birds relative to body size?

The most obvious difference between the brains of mammals and other vertebrates is in terms of size. On average, a mammal has a brain roughly twice as large as that of a bird of the same body size, and ten times as large as that of a reptile of the same body size.


A mammal's brain is how many times larger than a reptiles relative to body size?


The biggest difference between brains of mammals and other vertebrates is what?


What part of the brain most strongly differentiates mammals from other vertebrates?

Size, however, is not the only difference: there are also substantial differences in shape. The hindbrain and midbrain of mammals are generally similar to those of other vertebrates, but dramatic differences appear in the forebrain, which is greatly enlarged and also altered in structure. The cerebral cortex is the part of the brain that most strongly distinguishes mammals. In non-mammalian vertebrates, the surface of the cerebrum is lined with a comparatively simple three-layered structure called the pallium. In mammals, the pallium evolves into a complex six-layered structure called neocortex or isocortex. Several areas at the edge of the neocortex, including the hippocampus and amygdala, are also much more extensively developed in mammals than in other vertebrates.


The three-layered structure covering the cerebrum in non-mammals is known as what?


Mammals have a pallium that involved into what?


The hippocampus and amygdala are ares inside what structure?


The superior colliculus is related to what sensual control of vertebrates?

The elaboration of the cerebral cortex carries with it changes to other brain areas. The superior colliculus, which plays a major role in visual control of behavior in most vertebrates, shrinks to a small size in mammals, and many of its functions are taken over by visual areas of the cerebral cortex. The cerebellum of mammals contains a large portion (the neocerebellum) dedicated to supporting the cerebral cortex, which has no counterpart in other vertebrates.


The larger part of the cerebellum in mammals is called what?


The Neocerebellum supports what other part of the brain?


Comparing brain sizes among different creatures is used most commonly by what?

The brains of humans and other primates contain the same structures as the brains of other mammals, but are generally larger in proportion to body size. The most widely accepted way of comparing brain sizes across species is the so-called encephalization quotient (EQ), which takes into account the nonlinearity of the brain-to-body relationship. Humans have an average EQ in the 7-to-8 range, while most other primates have an EQ in the 2-to-3 range. Dolphins have values higher than those of primates other than humans, but nearly all other mammals have EQ values that are substantially lower.


Primates have a visual processing network of how many brain areas?

Most of the enlargement of the primate brain comes from a massive expansion of the cerebral cortex, especially the prefrontal cortex and the parts of the cortex involved in vision. The visual processing network of primates includes at least 30 distinguishable brain areas, with a complex web of interconnections. It has been estimated that visual processing areas occupy more than half of the total surface of the primate neocortex. The prefrontal cortex carries out functions that include planning, working memory, motivation, attention, and executive control. It takes up a much larger proportion of the brain for primates than for other species, and an especially large fraction of the human brain.


The visual processing areas occupy how much of the surface of the neocortex or primates?


Planning, motivation, and attention are controlled by what area?


The prefrontal cortex is the largest in what animals?


The precursor of the nervous system is called what in vertebrates?

For vertebrates, the early stages of neural development are similar across all species. As the embryo transforms from a round blob of cells into a wormlike structure, a narrow strip of ectoderm running along the midline of the back is induced to become the neural plate, the precursor of the nervous system. The neural plate folds inward to form the neural groove, and then the lips that line the groove merge to enclose the neural tube, a hollow cord of cells with a fluid-filled ventricle at the center. At the front end, the ventricles and cord swell to form three vesicles that are the precursors of the forebrain, midbrain, and hindbrain. At the next stage, the forebrain splits into two vesicles called the telencephalon (which will contain the cerebral cortex, basal ganglia, and related structures) and the diencephalon (which will contain the thalamus and hypothalamus). At about the same time, the hindbrain splits into the metencephalon (which will contain the cerebellum and pons) and the myelencephalon (which will contain the medulla oblongata). Each of these areas contains proliferative zones where neurons and glial cells are generated; the resulting cells then migrate, sometimes for long distances, to their final positions.


The neural groove is a hollow cord of cells with what in the center?


The forebrain splits during development into vesicles called what?


The vesicle that contains the cerebral cortex is which one?


The thalamus and hypothalamus are contained in which vesicle?


A growth cone of an axon is made up of a blob of what?

Once a neuron is in place, it extends dendrites and an axon into the area around it. Axons, because they commonly extend a great distance from the cell body and need to reach specific targets, grow in a particularly complex way. The tip of a growing axon consists of a blob of protoplasm called a growth cone, studded with chemical receptors. These receptors sense the local environment, causing the growth cone to be attracted or repelled by various cellular elements, and thus to be pulled in a particular direction at each point along its path. The result of this pathfinding process is that the growth cone navigates through the brain until it reaches its destination area, where other chemical cues cause it to begin generating synapses. Considering the entire brain, thousands of genes create products that influence axonal pathfinding.


What two structures does a neuron extend when it is in place during development?


The infant brain contains more of what type of cells in the brain than the adult brain?

In humans and many other mammals, new neurons are created mainly before birth, and the infant brain contains substantially more neurons than the adult brain. There are, however, a few areas where new neurons continue to be generated throughout life. The two areas for which adult neurogenesis is well established are the olfactory bulb, which is involved in the sense of smell, and the dentate gyrus of the hippocampus, where there is evidence that the new neurons play a role in storing newly acquired memories. With these exceptions, however, the set of neurons that is present in early childhood is the set that is present for life. Glial cells are different: as with most types of cells in the body, they are generated throughout the lifespan.


The olfactory bulb is related to what sense?


What area of the hippocampus plays a role in storing new memories?


Which type of cells in the brain are generated throughout your lifetime?


The electrical properties of neurons are controlled by what?

The functions of the brain depend on the ability of neurons to transmit electrochemical signals to other cells, and their ability to respond appropriately to electrochemical signals received from other cells. The electrical properties of neurons are controlled by a wide variety of biochemical and metabolic processes, most notably the interactions between neurotransmitters and receptors that take place at synapses.


What type of signals do neurons transfer from one another?


Chemicals called neurotransmitters are released at what part of the brain?

Neurotransmitters are chemicals that are released at synapses when an action potential activates them—neurotransmitters attach themselves to receptor molecules on the membrane of the synapse's target cell, and thereby alter the electrical or chemical properties of the receptor molecules. With few exceptions, each neuron in the brain releases the same chemical neurotransmitter, or combination of neurotransmitters, at all the synaptic connections it makes with other neurons; this rule is known as Dale's principle. Thus, a neuron can be characterized by the neurotransmitters that it releases. The great majority of psychoactive drugs exert their effects by altering specific neurotransmitter systems. This applies to drugs such as cannabinoids, nicotine, heroin, cocaine, alcohol, fluoxetine, chlorpromazine, and many others.


Neurons that release the same chemicals are following what rule?


The two neurotransmitters that are used most widely in the vertebrate brain are glutamate, which almost always exerts excitatory effects on target neurons, and gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA), which is almost always inhibitory. Neurons using these transmitters can be found in nearly every part of the brain. Because of their ubiquity, drugs that act on glutamate or GABA tend to have broad and powerful effects. Some general anesthetics act by reducing the effects of glutamate; most tranquilizers exert their sedative effects by enhancing the effects of GABA.


Which of two neurotransmitters is usually inhibitory?


The neurostransmitter that usually excites targets is called what?


Tranquilizers affect which of the two common neurotransmitters?


Serotonin comes from what part of the brain?

There are dozens of other chemical neurotransmitters that are used in more limited areas of the brain, often areas dedicated to a particular function. Serotonin, for example—the primary target of antidepressant drugs and many dietary aids—comes exclusively from a small brainstem area called the Raphe nuclei. Norepinephrine, which is involved in arousal, comes exclusively from a nearby small area called the locus coeruleus. Other neurotransmitters such as acetylcholine and dopamine have multiple sources in the brain, but are not as ubiquitously distributed as glutamate and GABA.


Antidepressants typically affect what chemical of the brain?


Which chemical of the brain is involved with arousal?


Norepinephrine comes from an area of the brain known as what?


As a side effect of the electrochemical processes used by neurons for signaling, brain tissue generates electric fields when it is active. When large numbers of neurons show synchronized activity, the electric fields that they generate can be large enough to detect outside the skull, using electroencephalography (EEG) or magnetoencephalography (MEG). EEG recordings, along with recordings made from electrodes implanted inside the brains of animals such as rats, show that the brain of a living animal is constantly active, even during sleep. Each part of the brain shows a mixture of rhythmic and nonrhythmic activity, which may vary according to behavioral state. In mammals, the cerebral cortex tends to show large slow delta waves during sleep, faster alpha waves when the animal is awake but inattentive, and chaotic-looking irregular activity when the animal is actively engaged in a task. During an epileptic seizure, the brain's inhibitory control mechanisms fail to function and electrical activity rises to pathological levels, producing EEG traces that show large wave and spike patterns not seen in a healthy brain. Relating these population-level patterns to the computational functions of individual neurons is a major focus of current research in neurophysiology.


MEG of the brain is an abbreviation of what?


What type of test is used to tell that a brain is active even during sleep?


What type of brain waves are seen in mammals during sleep?


What type of brain waves are sen when a creature is awake, but inattentive?


What type of cells have a huge role in brain metabolism?

All vertebrates have a blood–brain barrier that allows metabolism inside the brain to operate differently from metabolism in other parts of the body. Glial cells play a major role in brain metabolism by controlling the chemical composition of the fluid that surrounds neurons, including levels of ions and nutrients.


Glial cells control what inside the brain?


Where does the brain usually get most of its energy from inside the body?

Brain tissue consumes a large amount of energy in proportion to its volume, so large brains place severe metabolic demands on animals. The need to limit body weight in order, for example, to fly, has apparently led to selection for a reduction of brain size in some species, such as bats. Most of the brain's energy consumption goes into sustaining the electric charge (membrane potential) of neurons. Most vertebrate species devote between 2% and 8% of basal metabolism to the brain. In primates, however, the percentage is much higher—in humans it rises to 20–25%. The energy consumption of the brain does not vary greatly over time, but active regions of the cerebral cortex consume somewhat more energy than inactive regions; this forms the basis for the functional brain imaging methods PET, fMRI, and NIRS. The brain typically gets most of its energy from oxygen-dependent metabolism of glucose (i.e., blood sugar), but ketones provide a major alternative source, together with contributions from medium chain fatty acids (caprylic and heptanoic acids), lactate, acetate, and possibly amino acids.


The energy used for metabolism of the brain in humans is what percentage?


Other sources than glucose that provide energy to the brain are what?


Most vertebrates usually devote how much metabolism to the brain?


The function of the brain from an evolutionary-biological thought is what?

From an evolutionary-biological perspective, the function of the brain is to provide coherent control over the actions of an animal. A centralized brain allows groups of muscles to be co-activated in complex patterns; it also allows stimuli impinging on one part of the body to evoke responses in other parts, and it can prevent different parts of the body from acting at cross-purposes to each other.


Computers were invented in what decade in history?

The invention of electronic computers in the 1940s, along with the development of mathematical information theory, led to a realization that brains can potentially be understood as information processing systems. This concept formed the basis of the field of cybernetics, and eventually gave rise to the field now known as computational neuroscience. The earliest attempts at cybernetics were somewhat crude in that they treated the brain as essentially a digital computer in disguise, as for example in John von Neumann's 1958 book, The Computer and the Brain. Over the years, though, accumulating information about the electrical responses of brain cells recorded from behaving animals has steadily moved theoretical concepts in the direction of increasing realism.


Neuroscience spawned from what field of science in history?


Who wrote the book, The Computer and the Brain?


When was John von Neumann's book, The Computer and the Brain published?


The scientific paper, What the frog's eye tells the frog's brain was released in what year?

The essence of the information processing approach is to try to understand brain function in terms of information flow and implementation of algorithms. One of the most influential early contributions was a 1959 paper titled What the frog's eye tells the frog's brain: the paper examined the visual responses of neurons in the retina and optic tectum of frogs, and came to the conclusion that some neurons in the tectum of the frog are wired to combine elementary responses in a way that makes them function as "bug perceivers". A few years later David Hubel and Torsten Wiesel discovered cells in the primary visual cortex of monkeys that become active when sharp edges move across specific points in the field of view—a discovery for which they won a Nobel Prize. Follow-up studies in higher-order visual areas found cells that detect binocular disparity, color, movement, and aspects of shape, with areas located at increasing distances from the primary visual cortex showing increasingly complex responses. Other investigations of brain areas unrelated to vision have revealed cells with a wide variety of response correlates, some related to memory, some to abstract types of cognition such as space.


Who won a Nobel Prize for the discovery that cells in the visual cortex of monkeys become active when sharp edges move?


What is the project called that is trying to build a realistic, detailed computer model of the human brain?

Furthermore, even single neurons appear to be complex and capable of performing computations. So, brain models that don't reflect this are arguably too abstractive to be representative of brain operation; models that do try to capture this are very computationally expensive and arguably intractable with present computational resources. However, having said this, the Human Brain Project is trying to build a realistic, detailed computational model of the entire human brain. It remains to be seen what level of success they can achieve in the time frame of the project and the wisdom of it has been publicly contested, with high-profile scientists on both sides of the argument.


What type of animal has a sense that adapted into sonar?

One of the primary functions of a brain is to extract biologically relevant information from sensory inputs. The human brain is provided with information about light, sound, the chemical composition of the atmosphere, temperature, head orientation, limb position, the chemical composition of the bloodstream, and more. In other animals additional senses may be present, such as the infrared heat-sense of snakes, the magnetic field sense of some birds, or the electric field sense of some types of fish. Moreover, other animals may develop existing sensory systems in new ways, such as the adaptation by bats of the auditory sense into a form of sonar. One way or another, all of these sensory modalities are initially detected by specialized sensors that project signals into the brain.


What type of animal uses infrared heat to sense?


The group of animals that can detect magnetic fields is what?


The group of creatures that can sense electric fields is what?


Light-receptive neurons are located in what part of the eye?

Each sensory system begins with specialized receptor cells, such as light-receptive neurons in the retina of the eye, vibration-sensitive neurons in the cochlea of the ear, or pressure-sensitive neurons in the skin. The axons of sensory receptor cells travel into the spinal cord or brain, where they transmit their signals to a first-order sensory nucleus dedicated to one specific sensory modality. This primary sensory nucleus sends information to higher-order sensory areas that are dedicated to the same modality. Eventually, via a way-station in the thalamus, the signals are sent to the cerebral cortex, where they are processed to extract biologically relevant features, and integrated with signals coming from other sensory systems.


Vibration-sensitive neurons are found in what part of the ear?


Signals are sent from the thalamus to what part of the brain?


What part of the body is controlled by nuclei in the midbrain?

Motor systems are areas of the brain that are directly or indirectly involved in producing body movements, that is, in activating muscles. Except for the muscles that control the eye, which are driven by nuclei in the midbrain, all the voluntary muscles in the body are directly innervated by motor neurons in the spinal cord and hindbrain. Spinal motor neurons are controlled both by neural circuits intrinsic to the spinal cord, and by inputs that descend from the brain. The intrinsic spinal circuits implement many reflex responses, and contain pattern generators for rhythmic movements such as walking or swimming. The descending connections from the brain allow for more sophisticated control.


All the muscles controlled by motor neurons in the body are controlled by what?


Which motor areas of the brain control breathing and swallowing?

The brain contains several motor areas that project directly to the spinal cord. At the lowest level are motor areas in the medulla and pons, which control stereotyped movements such as walking, breathing, or swallowing. At a higher level are areas in the midbrain, such as the red nucleus, which is responsible for coordinating movements of the arms and legs. At a higher level yet is the primary motor cortex, a strip of tissue located at the posterior edge of the frontal lobe. The primary motor cortex sends projections to the subcortical motor areas, but also sends a massive projection directly to the spinal cord, through the pyramidal tract. This direct corticospinal projection allows for precise voluntary control of the fine details of movements. Other motor-related brain areas exert secondary effects by projecting to the primary motor areas. Among the most important secondary areas are the premotor cortex, basal ganglia, and cerebellum.


At the lowest level of the brain and spinal cord, are what areas?


The red nucleus controls what part(s) of the body?


A strip of tissue found at the edge of the frontal lobe is called what?


The primary motor cortex sends signals to the spinal cord through what?


The brain and spinal cord work together to control what system of the body?

In addition to all of the above, the brain and spinal cord contain extensive circuitry to control the autonomic nervous system, which works by secreting hormones and by modulating the "smooth" muscles of the gut. The autonomic nervous system affects heart rate, digestion, respiration rate, salivation, perspiration, urination, and sexual arousal, and several other processes. Most of its functions are not under direct voluntary control.


What system in the body controls heart rate?


What system in the body controls salivation?


Most of the processes of the autonomic nervous system are called what?


Which system in the body controls urination?


The SCN of the nervous system is an abbreviation for what?

A key component of the arousal system is the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN), a tiny part of the hypothalamus located directly above the point at which the optic nerves from the two eyes cross. The SCN contains the body's central biological clock. Neurons there show activity levels that rise and fall with a period of about 24 hours, circadian rhythms: these activity fluctuations are driven by rhythmic changes in expression of a set of "clock genes". The SCN continues to keep time even if it is excised from the brain and placed in a dish of warm nutrient solution, but it ordinarily receives input from the optic nerves, through the retinohypothalamic tract (RHT), that allows daily light-dark cycles to calibrate the clock.


The suprachiasmatic nucleus is a small part of what part of the brain?


Which part of the arousal system controls the body's biological clock?


THE SCN receives information from the optic nerves through what?


A group of neuron-clusters scattered in the core of the lower brain is called what?

The SCN projects to a set of areas in the hypothalamus, brainstem, and midbrain that are involved in implementing sleep-wake cycles. An important component of the system is the reticular formation, a group of neuron-clusters scattered diffusely through the core of the lower brain. Reticular neurons send signals to the thalamus, which in turn sends activity-level-controlling signals to every part of the cortex. Damage to the reticular formation can produce a permanent state of coma.


Reticular neurons transfer signals to what part of the brain?


Damage to the reticular formation can cause what?


The SCN transfers signals to a set of areas that implement what?


There are two types of sleep called what?

Sleep involves great changes in brain activity. Until the 1950s it was generally believed that the brain essentially shuts off during sleep, but this is now known to be far from true; activity continues, but patterns become very different. There are two types of sleep: REM sleep (with dreaming) and NREM (non-REM, usually without dreaming) sleep, which repeat in slightly varying patterns throughout a sleep episode. Three broad types of distinct brain activity patterns can be measured: REM, light NREM and deep NREM. During deep NREM sleep, also called slow wave sleep, activity in the cortex takes the form of large synchronized waves, whereas in the waking state it is noisy and desynchronized. Levels of the neurotransmitters norepinephrine and serotonin drop during slow wave sleep, and fall almost to zero during REM sleep; levels of acetylcholine show the reverse pattern.


The three types of brain activity that can be measured are what?


During what stage of sleep do serotonin and norepinephrine levels drop?


For any animal, survival requires maintaining a variety of parameters of bodily state within a limited range of variation: these include temperature, water content, salt concentration in the bloodstream, blood glucose levels, blood oxygen level, and others. The ability of an animal to regulate the internal environment of its body—the milieu intérieur, as pioneering physiologist Claude Bernard called it—is known as homeostasis (Greek for "standing still"). Maintaining homeostasis is a crucial function of the brain. The basic principle that underlies homeostasis is negative feedback: any time a parameter diverges from its set-point, sensors generate an error signal that evokes a response that causes the parameter to shift back toward its optimum value. (This principle is widely used in engineering, for example in the control of temperature using a thermostat.)


The milieu interieur term was used by what physiologist?


Homeostasis is like what household tool?


The hypothalamus is located at the base of what?

In vertebrates, the part of the brain that plays the greatest role is the hypothalamus, a small region at the base of the forebrain whose size does not reflect its complexity or the importance of its function. The hypothalamus is a collection of small nuclei, most of which are involved in basic biological functions. Some of these functions relate to arousal or to social interactions such as sexuality, aggression, or maternal behaviors; but many of them relate to homeostasis. Several hypothalamic nuclei receive input from sensors located in the lining of blood vessels, conveying information about temperature, sodium level, glucose level, blood oxygen level, and other parameters. These hypothalamic nuclei send output signals to motor areas that can generate actions to rectify deficiencies. Some of the outputs also go to the pituitary gland, a tiny gland attached to the brain directly underneath the hypothalamus. The pituitary gland secretes hormones into the bloodstream, where they circulate throughout the body and induce changes in cellular activity.


In vertebrates, the most important part of the brain is what?


A collection of small nuclei at the base of the forebrain is called what?


The gland directly underneath the hypothalamus is which gland?


The pituitary gland sends hormones through what in the body?


A set of interconnected areas at the base of the forebrain is called what?

Most organisms studied to date utilize a reward–punishment mechanism: for instance, worms and insects can alter their behavior to seek food sources or to avoid dangers. In vertebrates, the reward-punishment system is implemented by a specific set of brain structures, at the heart of which lie the basal ganglia, a set of interconnected areas at the base of the forebrain. There is substantial evidence that the basal ganglia are the central site at which decisions are made: the basal ganglia exert a sustained inhibitory control over most of the motor systems in the brain; when this inhibition is released, a motor system is permitted to execute the action it is programmed to carry out. Rewards and punishments function by altering the relationship between the inputs that the basal ganglia receive and the decision-signals that are emitted. The reward mechanism is better understood than the punishment mechanism, because its role in drug abuse has caused it to be studied very intensively. Research has shown that the neurotransmitter dopamine plays a central role: addictive drugs such as cocaine, amphetamine, and nicotine either cause dopamine levels to rise or cause the effects of dopamine inside the brain to be enhanced.


The basal ganglia is thought to be the central location at which what are made?


Which neurotransmitter plays a large role in drug abuse?


Which of the two systems, reward or punishment is better understood?


In what year did Tim Bliss and Terje Lomo publish a paper about long-term potentiation?

Almost all animals are capable of modifying their behavior as a result of experience—even the most primitive types of worms. Because behavior is driven by brain activity, changes in behavior must somehow correspond to changes inside the brain. Theorists dating back to Santiago Ramón y Cajal argued that the most plausible explanation is that learning and memory are expressed as changes in the synaptic connections between neurons. Until 1970, however, experimental evidence to support the synaptic plasticity hypothesis was lacking. In 1971 Tim Bliss and Terje Lømo published a paper on a phenomenon now called long-term potentiation: the paper showed clear evidence of activity-induced synaptic changes that lasted for at least several days. Since then technical advances have made these sorts of experiments much easier to carry out, and thousands of studies have been made that have clarified the mechanism of synaptic change, and uncovered other types of activity-driven synaptic change in a variety of brain areas, including the cerebral cortex, hippocampus, basal ganglia, and cerebellum. Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) and physical activity appear to play a beneficial role in the process.


Learning and memory expressed as changes in the synaptic connections was first theorized by whom?


What field of science studies the brain and the central nervous system?

The field of neuroscience encompasses all approaches that seek to understand the brain and the rest of the nervous system. Psychology seeks to understand mind and behavior, and neurology is the medical discipline that diagnoses and treats diseases of the nervous system. The brain is also the most important organ studied in psychiatry, the branch of medicine that works to study, prevent, and treat mental disorders. Cognitive science seeks to unify neuroscience and psychology with other fields that concern themselves with the brain, such as computer science (artificial intelligence and similar fields) and philosophy.


What scientific field tries to understand the mind and behavior?


What field of science strives to diagnose and treat diseases of the nervous system?


Psychiatry is the branch of science that does what?


Cognitive science seeks to join what two branches of science with other fields?


The oldest known method of studying the brain is what?

The oldest method of studying the brain is anatomical, and until the middle of the 20th century, much of the progress in neuroscience came from the development of better cell stains and better microscopes. Neuroanatomists study the large-scale structure of the brain as well as the microscopic structure of neurons and their components, especially synapses. Among other tools, they employ a plethora of stains that reveal neural structure, chemistry, and connectivity. In recent years, the development of immunostaining techniques has allowed investigation of neurons that express specific sets of genes. Also, functional neuroanatomy uses medical imaging techniques to correlate variations in human brain structure with differences in cognition or behavior.


What type of study uses medical imaging techniques to correlate changes in brain structure?


Until what century was brain studying mostly anatomical?


Neurophysiologists study the chemical, pharmacological, and electrical properties of the brain: their primary tools are drugs and recording devices. Thousands of experimentally developed drugs affect the nervous system, some in highly specific ways. Recordings of brain activity can be made using electrodes, either glued to the scalp as in EEG studies, or implanted inside the brains of animals for extracellular recordings, which can detect action potentials generated by individual neurons. Because the brain does not contain pain receptors, it is possible using these techniques to record brain activity from animals that are awake and behaving without causing distress. The same techniques have occasionally been used to study brain activity in human patients suffering from intractable epilepsy, in cases where there was a medical necessity to implant electrodes to localize the brain area responsible for epileptic seizures. Functional imaging techniques such as functional magnetic resonance imaging are also used to study brain activity; these techniques have mainly been used with human subjects, because they require a conscious subject to remain motionless for long periods of time, but they have the great advantage of being noninvasive.


The most common tools that neurophysiologists use are what?


What type of receptors does the brain lack?


Electrodes are often glued to what like in EEG studies?


The brain is surrounded by what type of fluid?

Another approach to brain function is to examine the consequences of damage to specific brain areas. Even though it is protected by the skull and meninges, surrounded by cerebrospinal fluid, and isolated from the bloodstream by the blood–brain barrier, the delicate nature of the brain makes it vulnerable to numerous diseases and several types of damage. In humans, the effects of strokes and other types of brain damage have been a key source of information about brain function. Because there is no ability to experimentally control the nature of the damage, however, this information is often difficult to interpret. In animal studies, most commonly involving rats, it is possible to use electrodes or locally injected chemicals to produce precise patterns of damage and then examine the consequences for behavior.


The brain is separated from the bloodstream by what feature?


The two main structures that protect the brain are what?


What type of disease if often studied to understand damage to the brain?


What type of animal is most commonly used to study brain damage?


Computational neuroscience is concerned with what two studies?

Computational neuroscience encompasses two approaches: first, the use of computers to study the brain; second, the study of how brains perform computation. On one hand, it is possible to write a computer program to simulate the operation of a group of neurons by making use of systems of equations that describe their electrochemical activity; such simulations are known as biologically realistic neural networks. On the other hand, it is possible to study algorithms for neural computation by simulating, or mathematically analyzing, the operations of simplified "units" that have some of the properties of neurons but abstract out much of their biological complexity. The computational functions of the brain are studied both by computer scientists and neuroscientists.


What is the most common test subjects for studying of the brain?

Recent years have seen increasing applications of genetic and genomic techniques to the study of the brain and a focus on the roles of neurotrophic factors and physical activity in neuroplasticity. The most common subjects are mice, because of the availability of technical tools. It is now possible with relative ease to "knock out" or mutate a wide variety of genes, and then examine the effects on brain function. More sophisticated approaches are also being used: for example, using Cre-Lox recombination it is possible to activate or deactivate genes in specific parts of the brain, at specific times.


Where was the oldest brain that was found?

The oldest brain to have been discovered was in Armenia in the Areni-1 cave complex. The brain, estimated to be over 5,000 years old, was found in the skull of a 12 to 14-year-old girl. Although the brains were shriveled, they were well preserved due to the climate found inside the cave.


How old was the oldest brain discovered thought to be?


The oldest known brain discovered was found in how old of a person?


The oldest brain found in a cave was from what gender of human?


The seal of the soul was debated to lie in what two organs of the body?

Early philosophers were divided as to whether the seat of the soul lies in the brain or heart. Aristotle favored the heart, and thought that the function of the brain was merely to cool the blood. Democritus, the inventor of the atomic theory of matter, argued for a three-part soul, with intellect in the head, emotion in the heart, and lust near the liver. Hippocrates, the "father of medicine", came down unequivocally in favor of the brain. In his treatise on epilepsy he wrote:


Aristotle thought the soul lied in what organ?


Who invented the atomic theory of matter?


The "father of medicine" is a name given to whom in history?


What philosopher in history argued for a three-part soul?


The physician Galen was from which country in history?

The Roman physician Galen also argued for the importance of the brain, and theorized in some depth about how it might work. Galen traced out the anatomical relationships among brain, nerves, and muscles, demonstrating that all muscles in the body are connected to the brain through a branching network of nerves. He postulated that nerves activate muscles mechanically by carrying a mysterious substance he called pneumata psychikon, usually translated as "animal spirits". Galen's ideas were widely known during the Middle Ages, but not much further progress came until the Renaissance, when detailed anatomical study resumed, combined with the theoretical speculations of René Descartes and those who followed him. Descartes, like Galen, thought of the nervous system in hydraulic terms. He believed that the highest cognitive functions are carried out by a non-physical res cogitans, but that the majority of behaviors of humans, and all behaviors of animals, could be explained mechanistically.


What period in history was anatomical studies of nerves greatly increased?


Penumata psychikon is usually translated as what?


Who found out that a shock of electricity to an exposed nerve of a dead frog caused contractions?

The first real progress toward a modern understanding of nervous function, though, came from the investigations of Luigi Galvani, who discovered that a shock of static electricity applied to an exposed nerve of a dead frog could cause its leg to contract. Since that time, each major advance in understanding has followed more or less directly from the development of a new technique of investigation. Until the early years of the 20th century, the most important advances were derived from new methods for staining cells. Particularly critical was the invention of the Golgi stain, which (when correctly used) stains only a small fraction of neurons, but stains them in their entirety, including cell body, dendrites, and axon. Without such a stain, brain tissue under a microscope appears as an impenetrable tangle of protoplasmic fibers, in which it is impossible to determine any structure. In the hands of Camillo Golgi, and especially of the Spanish neuroanatomist Santiago Ramón y Cajal, the new stain revealed hundreds of distinct types of neurons, each with its own unique dendritic structure and pattern of connectivity.


The tool that was invented to stain only a small fractions of neurons was called what?


What nationality was santiago Ramon y Cajal?


Work in the first half the 20th century in electrical properties of nerve cells were by what two main scientists?

In the first half of the 20th century, advances in electronics enabled investigation of the electrical properties of nerve cells, culminating in work by Alan Hodgkin, Andrew Huxley, and others on the biophysics of the action potential, and the work of Bernard Katz and others on the electrochemistry of the synapse. These studies complemented the anatomical picture with a conception of the brain as a dynamic entity. Reflecting the new understanding, in 1942 Charles Sherrington visualized the workings of the brain waking from sleep:


Which decade in history was officially called the "Decade of the Brain"?

In the second half of the 20th century, developments in chemistry, electron microscopy, genetics, computer science, functional brain imaging, and other fields progressively opened new windows into brain structure and function. In the United States, the 1990s were officially designated as the "Decade of the Brain" to commemorate advances made in brain research, and to promote funding for such research.