Methods in cognitive/behavioural neuroscience

Question 1

What is biological Psychology

Answer 1

study of relationship between psychological events and processes and physical events in the brain. understand how the brain creates the mind

Question 2

Match methods to hypothesis

Answer 2

causal or correlative, species applicable? spatio-temporal resolution applicable?

Question 3

Whole brain size? Synapse size?

Answer 3

25cm 100nm

Question 4

Who was Broca?

Answer 4

patient tan specific left frontal damage - broca’s area

Question 5

Luria’s method

Answer 5

converging head wounds of soldiers

Question 6

Localizationalist theory?

Answer 6

does brain part x take part in task a? Dangers could be ignoring parallel and adaptive brain processes

Question 7

Single dissociation

Answer 7

one lesion, one control, two tasks

Question 8

tasks should be of ….

Answer 8

equal sensitivity

Question 9

Double dissociation

Answer 9

two lesion, one control, two tasks

Question 10

Lesion methods?

Answer 10

stroke, anoxia, injury or stereotaxic surgery, chemicals and electrical methods

Question 11

Electrical methods?

Answer 11

DC - imprecise produces a chemical change around the region

RF - heats surrounding tissue can be small and precise

Question 12

Problem with electrical methods?

Answer 12

may destroy axons that connect distant regions and are just near the electrode tip

Question 13

Knife cuts?

Answer 13

best to assess effects of disconnection

Question 14

Chemical methods

Answer 14

excitotoxins put cell bodies in metabolic frenzy and destroys them leaving pathways untouched. EG ibotenic acid

Question 15

What do neurotoxins do?

Answer 15

mimic neurotransmitters but destroy cell that absorbs them. Can therefore target particular systems (like dopamine pathway). E.g. 6-OHDA

Question 16

Scopolamine

Answer 16

example of drug administered to whole body (Broks et al. examining dementia)

Question 17

Advantage of deactivation?

Answer 17

each animal can act as its own control (vs destruction)

Question 18

Examples of deactivation

Answer 18

chemical methods, cortical cooling, TMS (good temporal resolution and spatial <1cm when used in conjunction with fMRI)

Question 19

Examples of stimulation

Answer 19

Olds and Milner - rat would press lever to get stimulation in pleasure centres rather than eat.
Humans stimulated during surgery to ensure brain function maintained

Question 20

Neuroimaging

Answer 20

PET, MRI, sMRI and fMRI,

Question 21

PET

Answer 21

positron emitting tomography. Isotopes injected and as they decay they are detected by scanner. Can measure blood flow with 15O or metabolism with glucose. Poor spatial and temporal

Question 22

MRI

Answer 22

manipulates protons. Resonant frequency pulse applied and they are manipulated and detected

Question 23

sMRI

Answer 23

structural - different tissues give different RF signals

Question 24

fMRI

Answer 24

RF can be tuned to detect blood oxygen levels and activity. Spatial frequency <1mm but temporal is seconds. magnet is issue. Image produced by statistical tests

Question 25

Critisicms of fMRI

Answer 25

A new phrenology (richard gregory), overemphasis on localisation, correlation not causation, early studies used uncorrected image analysis statistics. E.g. dead salmon test. Requires careful behavioural designs

Question 26

Recording electrical activity

Answer 26

Electroencephalograms - result of summing millions of IPSPs and EPSPs. good temporal but poor spatial and weak signals

Question 27

MEG

Answer 27

magneto encephalography. uses magnetic fields instead. expensive and signals are only generated by dendrites in sulci but good spatial resolution and not distorted by scalp

Question 28

Neuroanatomy

Answer 28

Must know about structure and chemistry of brain. Can use light microscopy or chemical markers that make use of retrograde or anterograde transport

Question 29

Other measures

Answer 29

peripheral - skin conductance, heart rate, blood pressure etc