Ways of studying brain

• FMRI

  • Identifying changes in the levels of oxygen in blood that occurs due to brain activity in specific areas
  • when a brain area more active it leads to more oxygen being used so there is an increase of blood flow to this active area
  • produces 3D image showing which part of brain is active, activation map
  • used to identify which specific parts of brain are active in particular mental processes (showing localisation)
• EEG

  • electrodes being placed on the scalp using skull cap
  • detect small electrical changes resulting from the activity of brain cells
  • electrical signals are graphed over a period of time to see a persons general brain activity
  • used to detect sleep patterns and states such as sleep and arousal
  • used as a diagnostic tool to help diagnose conditions such as brain tumours and epilepsy
• ERPS

  • Electrodes placed on the scalp
  • Unlike EEG shows specific brain activity
  • A stimulus is presented many times and brain activity is measured same way as EEG
  • HOWEVER all extraneous brain activity from the original EEG recording is filtered out leaving only those responses that link to the presentation of the stimulus
  • What remains once the extraneous activity is filtered are the event related potentials (ERPs) – types of brain that are triggered by particular events.
• Post-mortems

  • The brain of a dead patient is examined and dissected to see if there are any physical/structural abnormalities
  • Brain can be compared with a brain that does not show this particular behaviour or mental process