Fichas
Ways of studying the brain
Fichas del conjunto (23)
- 1What is often the purpose of scanning in psychological research?investigating localisation, to determine which parts of the brain do what
- 2What does fMRI stand for?Functional magnetic resonance imaging
- 3how does fMRI work?detects changes in blood oxygenation and flow occurring due to neural activity in specific brain areas.
When a brain area is more active it consumes more oxygen and blood flow is directed to the active area (haemodynamic response) - 4What kind of image does fMRI produce?a 3D image showing all active brain areas
- 5What does EEG stand for and how does it scan?Electroencephalogram measure electrical activity within the brain via electrodes using a skull cap
- 6How is EEG's scanning represented?The brainwave patterns generated from millions of neurons, showing overall activity.
- 7What is EEG often used for/as?EEG is often used as a diagnostic tool (e.g. may indicate abnormalities such as epilepsy)
- 8What does ERP stand for and what is it?ERP = event-related potentials. The brain waves that are left when extraneous brain activity from an EEG recording is filtered out.
- 9How is filtering out extraneous brain activity done?using a statistical technique
leaving only responses relating to the presentation of a specific stimulus or performance of a specific task - 10What are ERP's?types of brainwaves triggered by particular events
- 11what has research revelead about ERP's?there are many forms of ERP's and has also revealed how these are linked to cognitive processes like attention
- 12What is a post-mortem examination?the analysis of a person's brain following their death
- 13How are post-mortems done?areas of the brain are examined to establish the likely cause of a deficit or disorder that the person suffered in life (may also compare to a neurotypical brain to see the extent of difference)
- 14Strengths of the fMRI techniqueIt's non-invasive and produces images with high spatial resolution (detail by the millimetre) meaning a clear picture of any localised activity
- 15why is being non-invasive a strength of the fMRI technique?unlike other techniques it is safe and doesn't use radiation
- 16What are limitations of fMRI?fMRI is expensive compared to others,
can only capture a clear image if the person stays still,
and has poor temporal resolution because of a 5 second lag between neural activity and image. (so may not truly represent moment to moment brain activity) - 17What are strengths of EEG?EEG has contribute to diagnosing conditions such as epilepsy, understanding sleep cycles and has an extremely high temporal resolution.
- 18How quickly do EEG's detect brain activity and how quickly do fMRI's?EEG's have a resolution of a single millisecond, fMRI's have a 5-second lag.
- 19What are the limitations of EEG's?EEG's produce a generalised signal from thousands of neurons. It's also difficult to know the exact source of the neural activity and can't distinguish the activity of different but adjacent (next to) neurons.
- 20What are the strengths of ERP's?ERP's are very specific measurement of a neural process, more specific than can be achieved using raw EEG data. Also like EEG's they have excellent temporal resolution.
- 21What are the limitations of ERP's?There is a lack of standardisation in methodology between studies making it difficult to confirm findings in studies involving ERP's. Background noise and extraneous material must also be completely eliminated which may not always be easy to achieve.
- 22What is a strength of post-mortem exams?they provided the foundation for understanding the brain - both Broca and Wernicke relied on post-m's. They also improve medical knowledge which helps us generate hypotheses for further study.
- 23What are the limitations of postmortems?Causation may be an issue. Observed damage in the brain may not be linked to the deficits under review but some other related trauma or decay. They also raise ethical issues in terms of consent (can't provide informed consent - e.g. HM)