A03

• What is an advantage of using EEGs over fMRIs?

  EEGS have a high temporal resolution, whereas fMRIs have a poor temporal resolution
• What is an advantage of using a post-mortem over non-invasive techniques (fMRI and EEGs)?

  Allows a more detailed examination of anatomical and neurochemical aspects of brain that wouldn't be possible with non-invasive techniques
• What are two limitations of using post-mortems?

  1. Issues with causation - damage may not be linked to deficit under review but to some other trauma

  2. Ethical issues of consent from before death - participants may not be able provide informed consent due to deficits in the brain
• What are 2 advantages of using fMRIs?

  1. Produce images that have very high spatial resolution and clear picture of how brain activity is localised
  2. Non-invasive - no insertion of instruments into the body or exposure to harmful radiation
• What is an another advantage of post-mortems?

  Played central role in early understanding of key processes in the brain before neuroimaging became a possibility
• What are 2 advantages of EEGs?

  1. High temporal resolution
  2. Useful in clinician diagnosis - has proved invaluable in diagnosis of epilepsy
• What are 2 disadvantages of EEGs?

  1. Poor spatial resolution - can only detect activity in superficial regions of the brain, and not in the deeper regions
  2. Not useful for pinpointing the exact source of neural activity as electrical activity can be picked up by several neighbouring electrodes
• What are 2 advantages of fMRI?

  1. Non-invasive - no insertion of instruments into the body or exposure to harmful radiation
  2. Produces images that have very high spatial resolution (1-2 mm) and clear picture - allows better discrimination between different brain regions with greater accuracy
• What are 2 disadvantages of fMRI?

  1. Poor temporal resolution - there is a 5-second time-lag behind the image on the screen and the initial firing of neuron activity
  2. Only measures blood flow in brain and cannot hone in on the activity of individual neurons = difficult to tell exactly what type of brain activity is being represented
• What is an advantage of ERPs?

  • Can measure the processing of stimuli even in the absence of a behavioural response
  • They make it possible to monitor 'covertly' the processing of a particular stimuli without requiring the person to respond to them
• What are 2 disadvantages of ERPs?

  1. In order to establish pure data is ERP studies background noise and extraneous material must be completely eliminated and this may not always be easy to achieve
  2. Lack of standardisation in methodology between different research studies - makes it difficult to confirm findings