fmri

Cards (9)

  • functional magnetic resonance imaging
  • maps brain
  • displays blood flow - oxygenated blood (red) vs deoxygenated blood (blue)
  • performing tasks = certain areas in brain becoming oxygenated
  • ✔️ support for localisation - different parts of brain do different things
  • ✔️unintrusive - don’t need to open up brain to investigate
  • ✔️ high spatial resolution- can clearly see what part of brain is being used - allows psychologists to accurately discriminate between different brain regions
  • X low temporal resolution - 4 second delay, not seeing it in real time = psychologists unable to predict with accuracy
  • X hard to infer causation at a neural level - fmris only measure blood flow
    • changes in blood flow indicate activity in a certain area but psychologists can’t conclude whether this area has a specific function