Ways of Studying the Brain

• Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI)

  • detects change in blood oxygenation - result of neural activity
  • produces three dimensional images - shows which parts are involved in certain mental process
  • ad - non invasive and good spatial resolution
  • dis - expensive
• Electroencephalogram (EEG)

  • measures electrical activity in the brain through electrodes
  • measures brain waves
  • ad - useful for studying stages of sleep, non invasive, temporal
  • dis - poor spatial resolution
• Event-related Potentials

  • EEG but minuses any extraneous brain activity
  • brainwaves that are triggered by specific stimulus
  • ad - good temporal resolution
  • dis - lack of standardisation
• Post-mortem Examination

  • analysis of a persons brain following their death
  • ad - broca and wernicke relied on this - research
  • dis - causation and did death effect the brain or something else? invasive
• Temporal Resolution


  how quickly the scanner can detect a change
• Spatial Resolution


  smallest measurement the scanner can detect