Model Assignment:
Scenario / Puzzle
COAS E105
Neural Bases of Human Behavior
First Essay
Instructions
This is a take-home essay worth 25 points. Using your notes from lectures
and the assigned readings, please answer the question below. Please do your
own work. You will be graded on both the content (15 points) as well as
the composition (10 points) of your essay.
After your essay has been graded and returned, you will have the option
of revising your answer to improve your score. You must turn in your original
essay along with your revision.
The Question
As the newly appointed assistant to the curator of the Instituto Cajal in Madrid, you have been given the difficult task of cataloguing a newly discovered collection of drawings of Golgi-impregnated neurons drawn by the master himself, Santiago Ramon y Cajal. As you slave away late one night you happen upon two drawings of what is clearly the same type of neuron, but the two neurons depicted in the drawings differ dramatically in one respect. First, describe what structures are similar across the neurons in the drawings, and the functions subserved by those structures. then, using one aspect of neuronal structure (your choice), describe in detail how the two neurons differ from each other. Finally, speculate as to how the difference you described might be reflected in a difference in the functioning of these two neurons.
Length
One page, typed, double-spaced.
