3 - fMRI and Cognition Flashcards
how does fMRI work?
blood contains haemoglobin which contains iron (which is magnetic)
active parts of the brain contain more oxygen-rich blood
by measuring the BOLD (blood oxygen level dependent) response we can work out which parts of the brain were recently active
what does fMRI show about differences in face processing in eastern vs western cultures?
both Japanese and American students participants performed better on same vs other culture faces
both cultures showed bilateral activation of the pSTS
greater bilateral activation of pSTS when looking at same vs other culture faces for both cultures
high level of consistency in neural responses between Japanese and Americans when decoding mental states from the eyes
how do autistic and neurotypical people process emotional images differently?
autistic participants had reduced activation in the MPFC and pSTS compared to neurotypical participants for implicit but not explicit emotional processing
(Kana et al)
what does fMRI tell us about how autistic people process emotional images?
autistic people recruit task-specific brain regions for processing emotions when explicitly asked to do so
reduced activity in identified brain regions may indicate likelihood of reflective thoughts regarding spontaneous emotion processing
(Kana et al)
how can we study social network?
by using a second-person neuroscience perspective
often use avatars
what is third person neuroscience?
a non-interactive stimulus
e.g. pre-recorded stimulus that participants knows is pre-recorded
what is second person neuroscience?
an interactive stimulus
e.g. live social partner transmitted via real-time video link
what is hyper scanning?
a technique that implements the concept of second person neuroscience
dual brain studies, which involves two scanners in the same room, and simultaneously recording both
what is an example of hyper scanning?
(anders et al. 2011)
romantic couples brain’s scanned simultaneously, female expressed emotions and males perceived
classification accuracy was higher for romantic couples,
a shared network effect - female’s emotion could be predicted by looking at male’s brain activity
what did Anders et al conclude (hyper scanning)?
the activity in one person’s brain can influence that in another person’s brain
this creates a “shared space of affect”
what can second-person neuroscience tell us about cognition?
- which brain regions are involved in social cognition?
- how brain activity of one person influences another’s
- mechanisms of social behaviour
- why some individuals have social interaction difficulties
how can fMRI help predict real-world behaviour outcomes?
brain is viewed as additional window into psychological processes and complements other measurements
facilitate translation between basic neuroscience and understanding real world behaviour
how does brain as predictor framework work?
step 1: generate hypothesis of which brain regions involved in process
step 2: measure neural activation in hypothesised regions and record data on behavioural outcomes
step 3: test whether activity in predicted brain regions predicts behavioural outcomes
