Medical Screening

• how do neuroscientists map out regions of the brain

  • Studying people with brain damage
  • Scanning
• Who is Phineas Gage

  • Experienced a traumatic brain injury
  • Iron rod driven through his entire skull yet survived
  • But his personality changed so much -> helped us understand what the frontal lobe does
• What does a CT scanner do

  • Uses X-rays to produce images of brain
• What does a CT scanner show

  • The main structures in the brain
  • If scan shoes a diseases or damaged brain structure + patient has lost some function -> function of that part of brain worked out
• What is the issue of CT scanning

  Doesn't show the function of main structures in brain
• What does a PET scan do

  • Shows brain activity
• How does a PET scan works

  • Patient injected with radioactive glucose
  • Cells that are more active take in more glucose (eg for respiration)
  • Radioactive atoms release gamma rays -> detected by scanner
  • More gamma rays come from parts containing more active cells
• What is the good thing about PET scanner

  • Very detailed
  • Can be used to investigate both the structure + function of the brain in real time
  • Like getting a patient to carry out activities during a PET scan causes specific area of brain to become more active