lesioning

Question 1

disadvantages lesion method: many confounding factors that complicate interpretation

Answer 1

• variability between neuro patients, some areas are never damaged or damaged more often (vulnerability -> solved by other damaged controls)
• case studies may not resemble typical case, power issue, but group studies are sometimes possible
• lesion may also effect white matter, or deprive unlesioned regions of normal input, or lead to diaschesis
• compensatory strategies
• patients may develop into a state of general disfunction like depression, explainign results on cognitive tests, though solved by “other damaged controls”
• test too early and there is still general disruption of entire brain, test too late and plasticity may have set in so that functions are now in different areas
• cant study temporal sequence
• assumptions of modularity/localization: discrete regions specialized in discrete function, however: distributed

Question 2

comparison with fmri?

Answer 2

• can study temporal sequence
• no issue with plasticity, damage to other regions
• can use more pps
• but is correlation only, cannot show necessity
• hard to investigate regions that are constantly active