Ways of studying the brain
- Created by: oliviasimmons99
- Created on: 12-06-17 20:58
View mindmap
- Ways of studying the brain
- EEG
- The scan recording represents the brainwave patterns generated from millions of neurons
- Electroencephalogram measures electrical activity within the brain via electrodes using a skull cap
- Often used as a diagnostic tool
- Shows overall electrical activity
- Invaluable in diagnosing conditions such as epilepsy
- Information is received from many thousands of neurons
- Post-mortem examinations
- Areas of the brain are examined to establish the likely cause of a deficit or disorder that the person suffered in life
- Involve comparison with a neurotypical brain in order to assess the extent of the difference
- The analysis of a person's brain following their death
- Causation may be an issue
- Provided the foundation for understanding the brain
- ERPs
- ERPs are what is left when all extraneous brain activity from an EEG recording is filtered out
- Brainwaves related to particular events
- Types of brainwave that are triggered by particular events
- Lack of standardisation in methodology between studies
- Research has revealed many different forms of ERP and how these are linked to cognitive processes
- Very specific measurement of neural processes
- fMRI
- Functional magnetic resonance imaging detects changes in blood oxygenation and flow that occur due to neural activity in specific brain areas
- fMRI produces a 3D image showing which parts of the brain are active and therefore must be involved in particular mental processes
- Highlights active areas in the brain
- When a brain area is more active it consumes more oxygen and blood flow is directed to the active area (haemodynamic response)
- Expensive
- Non-invasive
- EEG
Comments
No comments have yet been made