Post-mortems

• What is a post mortem?

  The brain is examined after death
• Why do people do post-mortems?

  So relate behavioural differences the person exhibited when they were alive to any brain differences
• What are some strengths of post mortems?

  • Provided a foundation of early knowledge of the brain (eg Broca’s area)
  • Improves medical knowledge of conditiona
  • Good spatial resolution
• What are some weaknesses of post-mortems?

  • Brain may change after death (decay etc)
  • Causation is problematic
  • Ethical issues such as informed consent. Hard to get after death