Ways of studying the brain AO1

• Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI)

  Measures brain activity in specific areas by detecting associated changes in blood flow
• Electroencephalogram (EEG)


  A record of the brain wave patterns produced by millions of neurons, producing characteristic patterns
• Event-related potentials (ERP)


  Isolating specific responses of neurons to specific stimuli or tasks
• Post-mortem


  Relating structural differences in brain structure to behaviours before death
• fMRI

  • detects changes in blood oxygen and flow in specific parts of the brain
  • when a brain area is more active it consumes more oxygen to meet this demand
  • produces 3D images
• EEG

  • measure electrical activity via electrodes fixed to an individuals skull with a skull cap
  • scan recording represents the brainwave patterns from action of neurons
  • used as a diagnostic tool in unusual arrythmic patterns of activity
• ERP

  • ERP uses EEG to look at specific neural responses of interest
  • isolates these responses using a statistical averaging technique
  • extraneous brain activity is filtered out leaving only specific brain responses to a specific task
  • what remains are ERPs
• Post-mortem

  • done on those who have rare disorders or have experienced unusual deficits in mental processes/behaviour in their lifetie
  • areas of damage in the brain are examined after death to establish likely cause of behaviour
• Spatial resolution


  refers to the smallest features a scanner can detect, number of pixels utilised in construction of a digital image
• Temporal resolution


  refers t the accuracy of the scanner in relation to time, or how quickly the scanner can detect changes in brain activity