Steven Crane Compiled Section Handouts. Human Behavioral Biology 2012

Example exam questions

14. 
    Cite two traits suggesting that Homo sapiens have not evolved as a classic pair-bonding species. (2 pts)
    

14. 
    a. A pathway is now understood explaining how a male vole from a species that pair-bonds becomes monogamously attached to a female. When he first has sex with her, he secretes the neurotransmitter/ neuromodulator , which binds to its receptors in a brain region called . This excites those neurons to release .” (3 pts total)
    

2. 
   What happens to a male vole in a polygamous species if you engineer neurons in that part of the brain to overexpress the gene for the receptor for that hormone? (2 pts)
   

2. 
   The increase in receptor levels engineered in part b was performed in a way that kept the amino-acid-coding sequence of the protein completely unchanged from that of normal voles. What stretch of DNA was changed to increase levels of the receptor protein being made? (1 pt)
   

2. 
   You find out that your brother John has a mutation resulting in significantly decreased expression levels of that receptor protein. What can you conclude about the number of wives John will have in his lifetime? Justify your answer. (2 pts)
   

b. Pre-natal masculinization of a rodent brain results in (circle one for each) (4 pts total, 1 pt each)

1. 
   a thinner corpus collosum
   

TRUE FALSE

2. 
   cyclic GnRH release
   

TRUE FALSE

3. 
   fewer hippocampal neurons
   

TRUE FALSE

4. 
   a smaller sexually dimorphic nucleus (SDN)/INAH TRUE FALSE