Neuroscience Methods: TMS; EEG and ERP Flashcards
what would be an ideal method for measuring brain activity?
- something that has spatial resolution on a cellular level
- something that has temporal resolution on a millisecond scale
- something that can study the whole brain simultaneously
- something that is non invasive
what is cytoarchitectonics?
- an anatomical method based on segmenting the brain according to its appearance under the microscope
- has a fine spatial resolution
- Although the method is based on structural information only, the microscopic appearance in many cases reflects the predominant types of cells, which would reflect the function
what do the cytoarchitectonic features of the brain areas correspond to?
The cytoarchitectonic features of the brain areas correspond with their main functions, output from the brain in case of motor cortex and input to the brain in case of primary somatosensory cortex.
what is a disadvantage of cytoarchitectonic methods?
- unusual for cytoarchitectonic studies to include large numbers of brains, due the time-and labour-intensive process
- Only studies with larger numbers of participants allow to study inter-individual variation in cytoarchitectonics.
what is the Brodmann area (BA) 4?
Primary motor cortex
what is the Brodmann area 3,1,2?
primary somatosensory cortex
what is the Brodmann area 17?
primary visual cortex
what is the Brodmann area 41?
primary auditory cortex
what does TMS stand for?
transcranial magnetic stimulation
what are some features of TMS?
- the method has millisecond temporal resolution
- can resolve within cortical maps (e.g. motor homunculus in primary motor cortex)
- but TMS can only be applied to one single location at any given time point
what is the process of TMS?
- simulator pressed above scalp, contains a coil wire
- a brief pulse of high electrical energy current fed through the coil
- results in a magnetic field with flux lines perpendicular to the plane of the coil
- the magnetic field induces electrical field perpendicular to the magnetic field
- electric field leads to neuronal excitation within the brain (trans-cranial)
what are some advantages of TMS?
- non-invasive
- painless
- safe stimulation of human brain cortex
- temporal resolution in millisecond range
- short duration of experiment to reduce risk of plasticity
what has TMS been used to study?
- Behaviour during experimentally contrlled “virtual brain lesions” which are fully reversible
- chronometry in brain activation
- functional connectivity.
what happens when you stimulate the motor cortex TMS?
- activates corticospinal neurons trans-synaptically
- record motor EPs (surface EMG, target muscle relaxed)
- record silent period in contracted target muscles approx 150ms after motor cortex stimulus
what happens when you stimulate the somatosensory cortex with TMS?
has excitatory effects e.g. the phosphenes; inhibitory effects: suppression of motion perception and letter identification