Exploring the brain 1

Question 1

neuropsychology

Answer 1

• specifc brain damage to a particular brain region
• infer normal function from missing function
• hippocampal damage and global amnesia - suggests hippocampus involved in certain types of memory - episodic rather than procedural
• e.g., Henry Molaison, a man without memories

Question 2

PET imaging

Answer 2

• positron imaging tomography
• inject radioactive tracer and detect radiation
• binding of tracer molecules - quantify number of endogenous proteins, and their activity
• quantify endogenous proteins to e.g., dopamine receptors or beta amyloid
• quantify endogenous activity
• e.g., fluorodeoxyglucose, glucose analogue, to measure regions of high glucose uptakr and use.

Question 3

MRI imaging

Answer 3

• magnetic resonance imaging
• structural - gives anatomy
• functional - measures blood oxygenation changes - surrogate measure of neuronal activity

Question 4

experiments using animals

Answer 4

• a lot of studies and knowledge of the biological brain functions is done using animals
• this is an image of a human vs rat brain
• they have broadly the same brain parts and broadly in the same place
• so can probe the animal brain to understand about the human brain

Question 5

study of animal behaviour

Answer 5

• ethology - study of animal behaviour in the context of natural behaviour - focus on evolution e.g., Darwin, Tinbergen, Lorenz, and Von Frisch
• behaviourism - study of processes that drive behaviour - e.g., learning paradigms, Thorndike, Watson, Skinner
• physiology - of whole body e.g., Pavlov
• Neuroanatomy - e.g.Golgi, Caial
• neurophysiology - e.g., Konorski, Hebb
• animal research is an important source of information for biological psychology but remains a highly controversial topic

Question 6

can use operant conditioning to study animals

Question 7

experiments using animals

Answer 7

• recording brain activity
• anatomy
• electrophysiology
• imaging
• use brain tissue or live animals