Biopsychology: Ways Of Investigating The Brain Flashcards
What are the 4 ways of investigating the brain
- FMRI
- EEG
- ERP’s
- post-mortem examination
Outline ‘FMRI’s’ as a way of investigating the brain
- detects changes in the blood oxygenation + flow that occur as a result of brain activity in specific areas
- when an area is more active, it consumes more oxygen, blood flow is directed to the active area
- FMRI produces 3 dimensional images showing which parts of the brain are involved in particular mental processes
What is the main strength of using FMRI’s as a way of investigating the brain
- unlike other scanning techniques, it does not rely on radiation
- if done correctly, it is virtually risk free, non evasive + straight forward to use
- also produces images that have high spatial resolution so provides a clear picture
What is the main weakness of using FMRI’s as a way of investigating the brain
- it is expensive compared to other neuroimaging techniques + can only capture a clear image if the person stays still
- also, it can only measure blood flow in the brain, cannot home in on the activity of individual neurons so hard to tell what activity it being represented on screen
Outline ‘EEG’s’ as a way of investigating the brain
- measures electrical activity within the brain via electrodes fixed to an individuals scalp using a skull cap
- the scan recordings represent the brainwave patterns generated from the actions of neurons
- can help diagnose certain conditions of the brain
What is the main strength of using EEG’s as a way of investigating the brain
- EEG has proved invaluable in the diagnosis of conditions such as epilepsy
- contributed to our understanding of the stages involved in sleep
- extremely high temporal resolution
What is the main weakness of using EEG’s as a way of investigating the brain
- not useful for pinpointing the exact source of neural activity + does not allow for researchers to distinguish between activities occurring in different but adjacent locations
Outline ‘ERP’s’ as a way of investigating the brain
- although EEG has scientific and clinical applications, in its raw form it is an overly general measure of brain activity
- using a statistical averaging technique, all extraneous brain activity from the original EEG recording is filtered out
- what remains are event related potentials: types of brainwaves triggered by particular events
What is the main strength of using ERP’s as a way of investigating the brain
- the limitations of EEG are partly addressed through the use of ERP’s
- they bring more specificity to the measurement of neural processes
- they have good temporal resolution
What is the main weakness of using ERP’s as a way of investigating the brain
- critics have pointed to a lack of standardisation in ERP methodology between different research studies
- so it is hard to confirm findings
- also, in order to establish pure data in ERP’s, extraneous masterly must be completely eliminated, this is hard to do
Outline ‘post morgen examinations ’ as a way of investigating the brain
- technique involving the analysis of a persons brain following their death
- areas of damage within the brain are examined after death as a means of establishing the likely cause of the affliction the person experienced
What is the main strength of using post mortem examinations as a way of investigating the brain
- vital in providing a foundation for early understanding of key processes in the brain
- improve medical knowledge + help generate hypotheses for further study
What is the main weakness of using post mortem examinations as a way of investigating the brain
- causation is an issue, observed damage to the brain may not be linked to the deficits under review.
- post-mortems also raise ethical issues of consent from individuals before death,such individuals may not be able to provide informed consent
