Ways of investigating the brain

- Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging

- detects changes in blood flow in the brain as a result of brain activity

- when a certain area of the brain is active= it needs oxygen to work= haemodynamic response occurs= more blood is carried to this certain area so more oxygen is provided

- Therefore= the area which shows the most blood= is the active area= showing what part of the brain is used for certain activities 

- Electroencephalogram

- measures electrical activity in the brain produced by the activity of neurons

- using electrodes attached to the scalp

- where there is the most electrical activity= this is the area of the brain that is in use

- Event Related Potentials

- Use electrodes attached to scalp= like EEG

- stimulus presented to pps

- researcher looks for brain activity related to the stimulus= electrical activity 

- assessing the brain of a deceased person who displayed specific beh when alive that suggested brain damage

- example= BROCA and Tan= when alive he could not speak complete sentences= during post mortem= found lesions in the frontal lobe, in left hemisoher= the Broca's Area= concluded responsible for speech production