Ways of studying the brain - AO3

Question 1

What is are strengths of post mortem?

Answer 1

• Early post mortem evidence vital is understanding by mental process
• Broca and Wernicke both relied on post mortems
• Post mortems allow deeper, non cortical regions to be investigated, unlike other non-invasive imaging techniques

Question 2

What are limitations of post mortems?

Answer 2

• Difficult to establish cause and effect
• Observed structural differences may be due to additional trauma/decay occuring after death - confounding variable
• Ethical issues: consent must be gained before death
• Often leads to small sample sizes

Question 3

What is a strength of EEGs?

Answer 3

• Significantly cheaper to implement than other imaging techniques, such as fMRIs
• More widely used in research, enabling larger sample sizes (generalisability)
• High temporal resolution which means that brain activity can be recorded within a single millisecond of it occurring
• Useful for diagnosing conditions characterised by sudden birts of brain activity such as epilepsy

Question 4

What is a limitation EEGs?

Answer 4

• Only give a record of overall neurological activity
• Links cannot be made between specific functioning and brain techniques
• Poor spatial resolution so researchers cannot tell you exactly where brain acitivity is coming from

Question 5

What are strengths of ERPs?

Answer 5

• Allow specific functions to be activity measured
• Unlike raw EEG data or post mortems
• Some excellent temporal resolution as EEG’s and equally cost effective (vs MRIs)

Question 6

What are limitations of ERPs?

Answer 6

• Sensitive to extraneous variables and background “noise” during the recording of data
• Can be difficult to completely eliminate extraneous materials
• Poor spatial resolution
• Can only meaure activity in superfical, cortical areas

Question 7

What are strengths of fMRIs?

Answer 7

• Does not use radiation (unlike PET scans) so it is risk free and invasive
• High spatial resolution - can depict detail by the millimetre
• Captures dynamic brain activity. unlike post mortems, allowing the active brain to be investigated

Question 8

What are limitations of fMRIs?

Answer 8

• Poor temporal resolution: five second lag between initial neural activity and the responding image
• May not truly represent moment to moment brain activity
• Expensive in comparisons to EEGs and ERPs which leads to reduced sample size