Postmortem examination

• • Researchers study actual physical brain of a deceased person who displayed a unique/particular behaviour whilst alive - such as rare disorder, cognitive deficit etc.
  • Broca - posterior left frontal lobe lesion
  • Knowledge of other disorders have been found too e.g Iverson found higher levels of dopamine in deceased schizophrenics brains compared to non-schizophrenics
  • These also allow detailed study of neurochemical and neuroanatomical aspects of the brain
• A03 positive

  • Postmortems allow researchers a detailed examination of structural and neurochemical aspects of the brain
  • Postmortems have enabled researchers to study deeper regions of the brain. They were also vital in our early understanding of processes in the brain (Broca, Wernicke)
• A03 Negative

  • confounding variables - method of death, time delay between death and postmortem, drug treatment.
  • retrospective - difficult to establish cause and effect - researcher is unable to follow up on any issues highlighted by the postmortem.
  • consent - individual unable - family?