4.3 Research Methods

Question 0

In 1861, Paul Broca found that a patient who had lost the ability to speak had damage in part of his left frontal cortex. Additional patients with loss of speech also showed damaged in and around that area, now known as ____ ____.

Answer 0

Broca’s area

Question 1

Examine the effects of brain ____. After damage or temporary inactivation, what aspects of behaviour are impaired?

Answer 1

damage

Question 2

Examine the effects of ____ a brain area. Ideally, if damaging some area impairs behaviour, stimulating that area should enhance the behaviour.

Answer 2

stimulating

Question 3

____ brain activity during behaviour. We might record changes in brain activity during fighting, sleeping, finding food, solving a problem, or any other behaviour.

Answer 3

Record

Question 4

____ brain anatomy with behaviour. Do people with some unusual behaviour also have unusual brains? If so, in what way?

Answer 4

Correlate

Question 5

An ____ is a removal of a brain area, generally with a surgical knife.

Answer 5

ablation

Question 6

Surgical removal is difficult for tiny structures far below the surface of the brain. In that case, researchers make a ____, meaning damage.

Answer 6

lesion

Question 7

To damage structure in the interior of the brain, researchers use ____ instrument, a device for the precise placement of electrons in the brain.

Answer 7

stereotaxic

Question 8

____ ____ ____, the application of intense magnetic field to a portion of the scalp, temporary inactivates neurons below the magnet. This procedure enables researchers to study a given individual’s behaviour with the brain area active, then inactive, and then active again.

Answer 8

Transcranial magnetic stimulation

Question 9

Researchers can insert electrodes to stimulate brain areas in laboratory animals. A new technique, ____, enables research to turn on activity in targeted neurons by a device that shines a laser light within the brain.

Answer 9

optogenetics

Question 10

Where as intense transcranial magnetic stimulation inactivates the underlying brain area, a brief, mild application ____ it.

Answer 10

stimulates

Question 11

A limitation of any stimulation study is that complex behaviours and experiences depend on a temporal pattern of activity across many brain areas, not just a general increase of activity in one, so ____ stimulation produces ____ responses.

Answer 11

artificial

Question 12

Studies of human brains almost always use ____ methods – that is, methods that record from outside the skull without inserting anything.

Answer 12

non-invasive

Question 13

A device called the ____ (EEG) records electrical activity of the brain through electrodes attached to the scalp.

Answer 13

electroencephalograph

Question 14

The EEG can record spontaneous brain activity or activity in response to a stimulus, in which case we call the results ____ ____ or ____ ____.

Answer 14

evoked potentials or evoked responses

Question 15

A ____ (MEG) is similar, but instead of measuring electrical activity, it measures the faint magnetic fields generated by brain activity.

Answer 15

magnetoencephalograph

Question 16

Like an EEG, an MEG recording identifies the approximate location of activity to within about a ____.

Answer 16

centimetre

Question 17

Another method, ____ ____ (PET), provides a high-resolution image of activity in a living brain by recording the emission of radioactivity from injected chemicals.

Answer 17

positron-emission tomography

Question 18

PET scans have been replaced by ____ ____ ____ ____ (fMRI), which is less expensive and less risky.

Answer 18

functional magnetic resonance imaging

Question 19

Standard MRI scans record the energy released by ____ molecules after the removal of a magnetic field.

Answer 19

water

Question 20

And fMRI is a modified version of MRI based on ____ (the blood protein that binds oxygen) instead of water. ____ with oxygen reacts to a magnetic field differently than ____ without oxygen.

Answer 20

haemoglobin

Question 21

When a brain area becomes more active, two relevant changes occurred: First, blood vessels ____ to allow more blood flow into the area. Second, as the brain area uses ____, the percentage of haemoglobin without oxygen increases.

Answer 21

dilate : oxygen

Question 22

A given brain area may have many ____, and we have to be cautious about equating one area with one function.

Answer 22

functions

Question 23

If we think we know what a given fMRI pattern means, we should be able to use that pattern to ____ what someone is doing or thinking.

Answer 23

identify

Question 24

Gall in the 1800s assumed that bulges and depressions on a skull corresponded to the brain areas below them. This understanding is known as ____.

Answer 24

phrenology

Question 25

A ____ ____ ____, better known as a CT or CAT scan is where a physician injects dye into the blood (to increase contrast in the image) and then places the person’s head into a CT scanner.

Answer 25

computerised axial tomography

Question 26

____ are then passed through the head and recorded by detectors on the opposite side. CT scans help to detect tumours and other structural abnormalities.

Answer 26

X-rays

Question 27

Another method is ____ ____ ____ (MRI), based on the fact that any atom with an odd numbered atomic weight, such as hydrogen, has an axis of rotation.

Answer 27

magnetic resonance imaging

Question 28

Research using modern methods to measure brain size suggests a moderate positive relationship between brain size and ____, although many puzzles and uncertainties remain.

Answer 28

intelligence

Question 29

Men and women are equal in IQ scores, despite men having ____ brains.

Answer 29

larger