Ways of Studying the Brain

Question 1

Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI)

Answer 1

Measures changes in blood flow and oxygenation which occur due to neural activity. An fMRI produces 3D images showing which parts are active during certain tasks: which has implications for our understanding of localisation

Question 2

What is the haemodynamic response?

Answer 2

When a brain is active it needs both blood and oxygen in those areas.

Question 3

Evaluation of fMRIs

Answer 3

• Risk free, non-invasive
• high resolution images
• very expensive and requires the patient to be incredibly still
• There is also a delay of about 5 seconds (temporal resolution)
• only measures blood flow, not individual neurons
• means we don’t know what type of neural activity there is

Question 4

Electroencephalogram (EEG)

Answer 4

record of the electrical activity of the brain via electrodes that are fixed to a person’s head. The resulting scan represents the brainwave patterns from millions of neurons, providing an overview of brain activity. They are often used to diagnose brain abnormalities such as epilepsy or brain tumours which often show abnormal activity.

Question 5

Evaluation of EEGs

Answer 5

• It can be useful for epilepsy diagnosis
• Has contributed to our understanding of ultra radian rhythms such as sleep.
• Has excellent temporal resolution: detecting activity with less than a millisecond delay
• only provide a very general overview of the brain
• can not see the exact source of the brain activity

Question 6

event-related potential (ERP)

Answer 6

Small voltage changes in the brain that are triggered by specific events. Using statistical technique, any one function can be isolated to see only the activity related to a specific event. This allows researchers to see which ERPs are produced for different tasks, and to identify any possible abnormalities or anomalies

Question 7

Evaluations of ERPs

Answer 7

• As it is derived from and EEG, it also has excellent temporal resolution
• It is more precise: allowing researchers to identify different ERPs which are associated with different functions
• When preforming ERPs there are many different ways of doing it
• In order to see the ERPs all background noise must be eliminated: which can be impossible- As it is derived from and EEG, it also has excellent temporal resolution

Question 8

Post-mortem examinations

Answer 8

Takes place after death. It tends to happen on people who have had an abnormal life - such as mental disorder or a deficit in mental processing. Areas of the brain are examined in order to find the cause of affliction. They are also compared with a neurotypical brain to see any differences.

Question 9

Evaluation for Post Mortems

Answer 9

• important in the development of our understanding (Broca & Wernicke)
• Improving of scientific knowledge
• cause & effect
• ethical issues