BIO331 Final Exam – 110 Questions | Visual Pathways, Agnosia, Cortical Processing & Genetics

This document is a comprehensive final exam preparation resource for BIO331, containing approximately 110 detailed, exam-oriented questions with direct answers that integrate material from Chapters 15, 1, and 14, as well as agnosia and cortical pathway readings. It is designed to support full-course revision by combining molecular genetics, sensory neuroscience, visual processing, and higher-order cortical function into a single, structured study guide suitable for final examinations. The genetics section provides a clear overview of human genome organization, gene identification strategies, homologous recombination, Mendelian versus complex inheritance patterns, linkage mapping, and applications to neurological diseases such as Huntington’s, Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, schizophrenia, and lipid storage disorders. These topics are explained with emphasis on experimental approaches, disease mapping, penetrance, and genotype–phenotype relationships commonly tested in upper-level biology and neuroscience courses. A major portion of the document focuses on visual system organization and cortical processing. It thoroughly explains retinal circuitry, phototransduction, rod and cone function, ON and OFF bipolar pathways, lateral inhibition, receptive fields, and the roles of horizontal, amacrine, and ganglion cells. Higher-level visual processing is covered in depth, including retinotopic organization, lateral geniculate nucleus layers, primary and extrastriate visual cortex (V1–V4), magnocellular, parvocellular, and koniocellular pathways, and dorsal (“where/how”) versus ventral (“what”) processing streams. The document also includes detailed lesion analyses, visual field defects, and clinical case-based diagnoses, making it particularly valuable for applied exam questions. In addition, the resource addresses perceptual and cognitive disorders such as visual agnosia, prosopagnosia, achromatopsia, simultanagnosia, neglect syndromes, akinetopsia, synesthesia, and phantom limb pain, linking neural damage to functional outcomes. This document is well suited for undergraduate students enrolled in courses such as Neurobiology, Neuroscience, Human Physiology, Sensory Systems, Cognitive Neuroscience, Biomedical Sciences, Biology, or pre-med and pre-health programs. It is especially useful for students preparing for cumulative finals, comprehensive reviews, or concept-heavy exams that require both mechanistic understanding and clinical interpretation. Keywords: visual pathways, cortical processing, visual agnosia, dorsal stream, ventral stream, visual cortex, retinal circuitry, phototransduction, ON OFF pathways, lateral geniculate nucleus, magnocellular pathway, parvocellular pathway, koniocellular pathway, visual field defects, sensory perception, neurogenetics, linkage mapping, Mendelian inheritance, neurological disorders, BIO331 final exam