Question

Please read the metaphoric story below about "The Wild Cats and the Students." The story has eight metaphors about neuron membrane potentials. You will be asked to match each metaphoric term with an actual part of the neuron membrane or its potential. Each correct metaphoric match (what do Wild cats symbolize? etc.),

"The Wild Cats and the Students" One day, a truck load of wild cats escaped from the circus. They congregated right outside of a classroom. They wanted to join the students inside so they started to jump at the closed windows. They jumped and jumped at the windows to no avail because no one would open the windows. The students didn’t want the wild cats inside the classroom. The circus truck came to collect the wild cats and drove up the service road next to the classroom building. In trying to make a U-turn, the driver would back up into the building and bump it. The first bump was not too hard, but it bumped open the spring-loaded windows in our classroom a few inches wide. A couple of wild cats sprang into the classroom, but the teacher was able to catch them and toss them out. Meanwhile, the truck driver was still trying to make a U-turn and was getting frustrated. He drove forward and then backward, and hit the building again, but this time a little harder. The spring-loaded windows bumped open a little wider and a few more wild cats were able to jump inside. The teacher quickly captured them and threw them outside. Now, the truck driver was very frustrated and in his third attempt at a U-turn, he backed the truck into the building very hard. This caused the windows to really fly open so that several wild cats jumped into the classroom before the windows snapped shut again. The students were very upset because they really did not like being around the wild cats. Several of the students ran outside by opening the spring-loaded door. This was all very upsetting to the teacher because the class was now in chaos. The teacher spent several seconds capturing the wild cats and throwing them outside, and then inviting the students to come back inside. Ah, once again, peace returned to the classroom and we returned to our studies, trying to ignore the wild cats outside jumping at the windows again.

In this metaphor, what are/is the: Wild cats? Students? The classroom wall? The windows? The door? The truck hitting the building? The peace returning to the classroom? The teacher?

Answer 1

The transmission in neurons and the metaphor.

• Wild cats - The Sodium ions (Na+) outside the nerve cell. These ions are positively charged.
• Students -. The Potassium ions (K+) inside the nerve cell. These ions are negatively charged.
• The classroom wall- The cell membrane of neurons.
• The windows-. The sodium ion gates or the channels at the cell membrane.
• The door- The ion gates that open up at the axon terminal to conduct the nerve impulse.
• The truck hitting the the building- The stimulus threshold that causes the nerve impulse transmission.
• The peace returning to the classroom- Again the cell membrane allows the K+ ions to get in being permeable and Na+ remains outside due to the impermeability of the cell membrane. Thus, again inside the cell membrane the cell is negatively charged with K+ ions and outside it is positively charged with Na+ ions, it comes back the resting phase.
• The teacher- The nucleus of the the neuron cells.