L18 - cognitive neuroscience methods

What is cognitive neuroscience?

focusses on brain function and dysfunction

What are the tools involved in cognitive neuroscience?

brain legion analysis, EEG, functional imaging (PET and fMRI), transcranial magnetic stimulation

What is brain legion analysis?

aims to discover how the brain normally functions by investigating behaviour of patients with brain legions in a specific region, put together a control group: people without brain legions in the ROI and an experimental group: people with brain legions in the ROI and see how their behaviour differs

What is EEG?

records the brains electrical activity via electrodes placed on the scalp, non-invasive, EEG activity is similar between people across different states allowing identification of abnormalities

What is structural neuroimaging and some examples?

screens the anatomy of the brain e.g. CT - uses x-rays but low spatial resolution, MRI - uses magnets and has a better spatial resolution than CT, DTI (diffusion tensor imaging) - using MRI scanner maps the integrity of white matter tracts/axons

What is functional neuroimaging and some examples?

screens show activity of the brain e.g. PET - positron emission tomography, participant inhales or injected with radioactive material which enters the blood and can be tracked as it travels to more metabolically active regions but has low spatial resolution, and fMRI - an adapted MRI which records changes in metabolic activity in successive images has great spatial resolution than PET and is non-invasive

What is transcranial magnetic stimulation?

equipment with a black coil that conducts electrical pulses that are converted to magnetic pulses and stimulate the neurons under the coil

What is converging methods?

combining information from different methods to come to a clear conclusion e.g. if a brain region is active does not necessarily mean it is responsible for the task, can check with a brain legion analysis of the ROI