Invasive Research Methods Flashcards
Protective layers to the brain
1) Skull
2) meninges, including dura mater, subdural space, arachnoid membrane and pia mater
Skull plates and fusion locations
1) Frontal bone
2) Parietal bones
3) Occipital bone
4) Temporal bones
5) lambda: fusion of occipital and parietal bones
6) bregma: fusion of frontal and parietal bones
7) mid-saggital line: fusion of the two parietal bones
Brain atlas
provides maps of brain structures in all 3 orientations (coronal, saggital, horizontal)
Lesion
part of the brain is damaged, destroyed or removed
- lesions are surgically performed to remove tumors or as a last resort for epilepsy patients, or for neuropsychological studies to compare behaviour and thus determine brain functions
Aspiration lesion
tissue of the cortical areas is removed with a suction pump
Radio-frequency lesion
a high frequency current is passed through an inserted electrode
the heat destroys all cell bodies and axons in the area
Neurotoxic lesion
inserted cannula injects a neurotoxin that only destroys the cell bodies
Knife cut
a knife with a releasable blade is inserted
the cut destroys all tissue in the area
Cryogenic blockade
cryoprobe is implanted into the brain and a coolant temporarily stops the neurons in the area from firing
this technique is reversible when the cryoprobe is removed
Problems with lesion interpretations
1) lesions are often not exact and destroy additional structures
2) the target structure might be an excitator or inhibitor of another area that actually causes the behaviour
3) some areas partially recover over time
Types of stains
1) Golgi stain: stains all parts of the neuron
2) Nissl stain: stains only the soma of cells in a section
anterograde tracing
shows where the information is sent
retrograde tracing
shows from where the information is received
Electrophysiological techniques
1) inserting an electrode into a single neuron and measuring activity
2) stimulating single neurons to observe effect
