Ways of investigating the brain

Question 1

fMRI

Answer 1

Measures blood flow when person forms a task; non-invasive and creates a 3-D map of the brain highlighting which areas are involved in different neural activities

Question 2

EEG

Answer 2

measures electrical activity through electrodes attached to scalp; non-invasive and can detect several regions but can’t pinpoint exact region of activity

Question 3

ERP

Answer 3

difference between EEG and this is a stimulus is present to a participant and the researcher looks for activity released to that stimulus, non-invasive and can pinpoint regions of activity

Question 4

post mortem

Answer 4

Study physical brain of person who displayed behaviour when they were alive, usually used for people with underlying issues but it is difficult to pinpoint as the person is already dead, can be invasive but others may not consider it as they are dead

Question 5

evaluation of fMRI

Answer 5

+ good spatial resolution (how clear pic is)

• bad temporal resolution (how precise the measurement is in terms of time) as it has a 5 second delay
• expensive

Question 6

Evaluation of EEG

Answer 6

+ excellent temporal resolution
+ useful in detecting disease eg epilepsy and informing us about sleep
- no pictures so we are unable to pinpoint regions

Question 7

evaluation of ERP

Answer 7

+ good temporal resolution
+ can pinpoint which tasks cause specific brain activity
- issues with methodology of studies

Question 8

evaluation of post mortem

Answer 8

+ provide info we can’t get from living object so this is valuable

• can’t establish cause-and-effect as they are already dead
• ethical issues with informed consent as this cannot be obtained unless they gave consent prior to death or family member has