Ways Of Investigating The Brain Flashcards
(17 cards)
What is spatial resolution
The accuracy in identifying the exact location of brain activity
What is the temporal location
The accuracy in identifying the exact time of brain activity
What does fMRI stand for
Functional magnetic resonance imaging
What do fMRI’s do
-Measure blood flow to areas of the brain which are active
-Makes a 3D map of the brain by detecting the different magnetic qualities of deoxygenated haemoglobin
What do EEG’s stand for
Electroencephalogram
What do EEG’s do
-Electrodes attached to the scalp measure electrical activity
-Electrical activity in the brain is due to informational processing
-Action potentials are detected and graphed over a long period of time showing overall brain activity
What are ERP’s
Event related potentials
What do ERPs do
-Electrodes attached to the scalp
-Stimulus is shown and average ERP response is graphed
-This filters out any extraneous brain activity not related to the task
What do post mortems do
-Analyse a person’s brain post death
-Areas of the brain are examined to determine a deficit or disorder when compared to a neurotypical brain
fMRI spatial resolution
-High spatial resolution
-1-2mm
-More accurate identification in which parts of the brain are active during a task
-Leading to more accurate conclusions drawn about localisation of behaviour
EEG/ERP spatial resolution
-Poor spatial resolution, only measures the superficial layers of the brain
-Lower accuracy of localisation of function
fMRI temporal resolution
-Poor temporal resolution
-Only produces an image every 1-4 seconds
-Poor identification of time of activity
EEG/ERP temporal resolution
-High temporal resolution
-Every 1-10 milliseconds
-Accurate conclusions about time of neural activity
Are these methods invasive or non invasive
-All methods are non-invasive since they don’t use insertions or radiation
Does fMRI provide causation
-Does not provide any accuracy of causal activity since it just measures the change in blood flow
Does EEG provide causation
-Does not provide causation since electrical activity is detected in multiple different regions
Does ERP provide causation
-Yes, it eliminates all extraneous brain activity so you can infer causation
