Biopsychology Flashcards
What does fMRI do?
Measures blood flow in brain while person is performing task. More active areas of the brain will consume more oxygen
What do EEGs do?
Measures electrical activity via electrodes attached to scalp
What do ERP’s do?
Attaches electrodes to scalp, presents stimulus many times (often hundreds) and uses averaging technique to measure brain waves that are triggered by particular events
What do post mortems do
Analysis of brain after death. Likely people are those who displayed strange behaviours when alive to establish likely cause
Strength of fMRI
Good spatial resolution (to the mm), non-invasive and risk free.
Weaknesses of fMRI
Poor temporal resolution (5 sec time lag) so may not represent moment to moment brain activity,expensive
Strengths of EEG
High temporal resolution (millisecond), useful in studying sleep stages and in diagnosing epilepsy
Weaknesses of EEG
Poor spatial resolution so does not show exact location of activity, generalised info recieved
Strengths of ERP
Good temporal resolution, reduce extraneous neural activity
Limitations of ERP
Poor spatial resolution, lack of standardisation in ERP methodology
Strength of post mortems
Broca and Wernicke’s findings, HM, allows for deep investigation, continue to provide useful info
Weaknesses of post mortems
Causation - observed damage to brain may have other causes like trauma or decay and not be down to a disorder, ethical issues of informed consent
