post mortem

• strengths

  • allow for a more detailed examination of anatomical and neurochemical aspects of the brain than would be possible with the sole use of non invasive scanning techniques such as FMRI and EEG
  • harrison claims post mortem played a central part in our understanding of the origins of schizophrenia. he suggests that as a direct result of post mortem, researchers discovered structural abnormalities of the brain and evidence of changes in the neurotransmitter system
• limitations

  • because people die in a variety of circumstances, these factors can influence post mortem brain. the length of time between death and post mortem, drug treatments and age to death are confounding influences of any difference between cases and controls
  • approach is limited because its retrospective as the person is already dead. the researcher is unable to follow up on anything that arises from the post mortem concerning a relationship between brain abnormalities and cognitive functioning