PET Brain Scans - Strengths and Weaknesses

Question 1

+ Ethical and harmless

Answer 1

PET scans are ethical and provide no more harm to the body than can be found in everyday life

Question 2

+ Reliable

Answer 2

PET scans are reliable - they can be repeated and the same results will be found (the same areas of the brain are consistently found for different activities)

Question 3

• Claustrophobic

Answer 3

The PET scan itself is claustrophobic - it must be carefully explained to the individual

Question 4

• Isolation of brain functioning

Answer 4

It is difficult with PET scans to isolate different brain functioning precisely, e.g. people can read passages of text while being scanned but they will almost certainly be using other parts of their brain as well