ways of studying the brain

Question 1

fmri - number 1

Answer 1

functional magnetic resonance imaging
- measures blood oxygenation and blood flow in the brain when person performs a task
- most active neurons in the brain = use most energy

• area of brain becomes more active = uses more oxygen = so increase of blood flow in this area
  = known as haemodynamic response

Question 2

eeg

Answer 2

electroencephalogram
- measure electrical activity through electrodes attached to scalp
- info processed in the brain as electrical activity in form of action potential or nerve impulses

4 types of eeg patterns
- alpha
- beta
- delta
- theta

Question 3

erps

Answer 3

event related potentials
- use similar equipment to eeg
- eeg - produce general measure of brain activity
- erps = able to show specific reponse to a particular stim
- all extra brain activity = filtered out , whats left is specific response to task /event = called event related potentials

Question 4

post mortem examinations

Answer 4

• analysis of persons brain after death
• likely person had rare disorder/ had unusual behaviour when alive
• comparison to neurotypical/normal brain to find any major differences

Question 4

fmri strength and weakness

Answer 4

strength
p- high spatial resolution
e- can detect brain activity at resolution of 1-2mm, way more precise than other techniques e.g eeg/erp
e- psychologists can pinpoint exact brain areas involved in certain mental functions more precisely
l- more effective = allows for more accurate localisation of brain activity

weakness
p- expensive , can be misleading/ misinterpreted
e- costly , need patient to be completely still for clear image
e- have poor temporal resolution as 5 second delay between neural activity and image output , + doesn’t show brain activity directly , measures changes in blood flow , which only gives indirect pic of whats actually happening in brain
l- not accurately reflect real time brain activity + data= misinterpreted

Question 5

eeg strength and weakness

Answer 5

strength -
p-record brain activity = real time
e- gives high temporal resoulutions = allows to track rapid brain responses to spec tasks
e- eegs= used in diagnosing neurological conditions e.g epilepsy , and in researching sleep patterns , by identifying different stages of sleep
l- valuable tool in both clinical/ research settings

limitation =
p- only measure outer areas of brain
e- can’t detect activity in deeper structures e.g hippocampus , important 4 memory
e- + has poor spatial resolution , picks up signals for large areas at once = hard to pinpoint exact location of brain
l- useful for general activity of brain near surface, bad for tryna understand deeper regions.

Question 6

erps strength lim

Answer 6

strength -
p- precise way to measure specific processes
e- unlike eeg, can focus on particular brain responses to specific events, more detailed info
e- high temporal resolution , = brain responses , tracked within millisecond of stim
l- more useful than eeg, when needing clearer understanding

limitation
p- researchers dont always use same meth
e - hard to compare results from diff studies/ be sure that results = correct
e- hard to block out background ba , effects results
l- unclear/unrelaible results

Question 7

post mortem studies strength weakness

Answer 7

strength
p- can look at brain tissue in detail
e- allows to study deeper parts of brain, tissue can be saved for future studies which other meth can’t do
e- also have helped us understand the brain better e.g broca used meth to learn abt speech
l- valuable , bc helped improve understanding of brain

limitation
p- confounding variables e- e.g deficit patient shows while alive , may not be caused by damage found after death
e- issue may have come from other illness , can’t be sure that brain damage actually caused behaviour
l- pm studies = limited, cofounding variables = makes hard to prove cause and effect