This document contains a complex exercise on neurobiology. It focuses on “Pain Medication” as an application of knowledge about chemical synapses and neuronal signal modulation. 

It can be used as practice for an upcoming exam, or it can be used as an exam itself.

The exercise is tailored to require 60 min of work when done in "one sitting" and in writing.

It includes the solutions and references to the following competencies:

-        I can purposefully extract information from written sources.

-        I can trace back a circumstance to a rule, biological law or causal correlation.

-        I can analyze and interpret the data depicted in a diagram.

-        I can form justified hypotheses on scientific questions.

-        I can name, describe, and explain processes that maintain resting potential, and I can name, describe, and explain processes that counteract the maintenance of a resting potential.

-        I can explain membrane potentials as the basis for the transmission of information in our nervous system.

-        I can describe and compare different kinds of membrane potentials (RP, AP, PSP (IPSP, EPSP)).

-        I can explain the all-or-none law.

-        I can describe the process of impulse transmission at chemical synapses.

-        I can describe and explain the conversion of an action potential into a postsynaptic potential (IPSP, EPSP) at a chemical synapse, and I can give reasons for the significance of this process.

-        I can describe and explain the influence of neurotoxins on membrane potentials and the transmission of signals on chemical synapses, and I can deduce potential consequences.