Ways of studying the brain

-Measures electrical impulses within the brain using electrodes - scan recording represents brain wave patterns that are generated from thousands of neurons providing overall brain activity - used to identify arrhythmic patterns of activity may indicate neurological abnormalities such as epilepsy

-S:useful in studying stages of sleep and diagnosis of epilepsy , high temporal resolution -L: not useful for locating the source of brain activity so not useful for localisation of brain function

-Method to measure brain activity while a person is performing a task - fMRI uses radio waves to detect oxygen levels in the brain which will be most present in the most active areas in the brain (haemodynamic response)

-S: does not use radiation so risk free, high spatial resolution -W: expensive, poor temporal resolution (5 second time lag)

-The brain’s electrophysiological response to a specific sensory, cognitive, or motor event -can be isolated through statistical analysis of EEG data which removes extraneous brain activity data

-S: more specificity in data compared to EEG, excellent temporal validity which makes it good for cognitive functions -W: lack of standardisation in ERP procedures which makes findings hard to confirm, all extraneous data has to be removed which may be difficult

-The brain is analysed after death to determine whether certain observed behaviours during the patient’s lifetime can be linked to abnormalities in the brain. -Compared to a neurotypical brain

-S: vital in early research into the brain such as Broca’s and wernickes areas and were used in HM case study to see if damage caused his memory issues -W: Causation issues, observed damage to the brain may not have caused the issues , ethical issues- must have informed consent