A01 Ways Of Investigating The Brain

• Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI)

  Detects changes in blood deoxygenation and flow that occur due to neural activity in specific parts of the brain
• Active brain


  When brain area is more active, it consumes more oxygen and therefore, blood flow is directed to the active area (this is called a haemodynamic response) to meet this increased demand.
• How the fMRI works

  fMRI produces three-dimensional images showing which parts of the brain are involved in a particular mental process and also had implications for understanding localisaiton of functions.
• Electroencephalogram (EEG)


  Measures electrical activity within the brain through electrodes that are fixed to an individual's scalp using a skull cap. Scan recording represents brain wave patterns that are generated from the millions of neurons providing an overall account of the brain.
• Diagnostic tool


  Often used by clinicians as a diagnostic tool as unusual arrhythmic patterns of activity (no particular patterns) may indicate neurological abnormalities like epilepsy/tumours.
• Event-related potential (ERP)


  Has many scienitifc and clinical applications but is a crude and overy general measure of brain activity.
• Neural responses


  However, within EEG data are contained all the neural responses associated with specific sensory, cognitive and motor events that may be of interest. Researchers developed ways to isolate those responses using a statistical averaging technique where all extraneous brain activity from the EEG recording is filtered out leaving only these responses.
• Event relation


  Event-related potentials remain (types of brain waves that are triggered by a particular event). Research has revealed many different forms of ERP and how these could be linked to cognitive processes such as attention and perception.
• Post-mortem examinations


  Technique involved with the analysis of a person's brain follwing their death.
• Reasons for post-mortems


  In psychological research, individuals whose brain are subject to post-mortems are likely to be those who have rare disorders and have experienced unusual defecits in mental processes or behaviour during their lifetime.
• Comparison


  Areas of the damage within the brain are examined after death to establish the likely cause of the affliction the person experienced. This may involve a comparison with a neurotypical brain to ascertain the extent of difference.