Ways of studying the brain

• fMRI

  • Detects changes in blood flow to particular areas of the brain due to neural activity
  • Indirectly measures the electrical activity of neurons through recording changes in brain blood flow
  • Provides anatomical and function view of the brain.
• +/- of fMRI

  (+) Non invasive - does not use radiation.

  (-) Highly sensitive to motion - participants must stay still.
• ERP

  • General measure of brain waves.
  • Filtered, isolated reading from EEG.
  • Isolates specific responses using a statistic averaging technique
  • Measures types of brainwaves which are triggered by specific tasks
• +/- of ERP

  (+) Much more specific than EEG on measuring neural processes around specific tasks.

  (-) Extraneous variables, e.g. Background noise
• EEG

  • Records electrical activity along the scalp produced by the firing of neurons over a short period of time.
  • Recordings represent brain wave patterns in general
  • Can detect arrhythmic patterns which indicate abnormalities.
• +/- of EEG

  (+) Invaluable in diagnoses of epilepsy

  (-) Lacks precision due to being unable to pin point exact sources of neural activity
• Post-Mortem Examination

  • Analysis of the brain after death
  • Areas of damage are examined and often compared to a neurotypical brain to distinguish difference.
  • Mainly used on those who had a rare disorder deficit in mental processes.
• +/- of Post Mortem

  (+) Improves medical knowledge that influences hypotheses for further study

  (-) Ethical issues surrounding consent