Methods in Neuropsychology
21 important questions on Methods in Neuropsychology
What are 4 electrophysiological recording methods?
2. Electroencephalography (EEG)
3.Event-related potential recording (ERP)
4. Magnetoencephalography (MEG)
What is single-cell recording? What does it measure? What is it used on?
- it measures changes in neural responsiveness in relation to changes in stimulus/task
Primarily used in animal/humans having brain surgery (limitation: not neurotypical to all humans)
What is EEG? What is an example of a time where EEG is used.
- the difference in potential between a signal at a recording electrode and that at the reference electrode is measured
- provides a continuous recording of overall brain activity
Example: to measure the sleep wake cycle
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What is a limitation of EEG?
What can be said about the temporal resolution, signals, and the spatial resolution of EEG?
- Temporal resolution (measuring when an event occurred) - very good
- Signals = weak and need to be averaged over many trials to stand out from noise (bad as the participant gets better at the task with practice)
- Spatial resolution (measuring where an event occurs) = poor and not all neurons can contribute to an EEG signal
How does PET measure physiological changes?
= areas producing greater tracer signals are those with higher blood flow (i.e. more active neurons)
What are 3 limitations of PET?
2. Spatial resolution is poor (only 10mm)
3. PET is uncomfortable, not advised for repeated testing, and strict participation criteria due to radiation (e.g. no females as bad side effects if they are pregnant; males usually have to be within a certain age criteria.)
What does fMRI measure?
(look at lecture notes for experiment/ limitations)
What are limitations of fMRI?
- scanning imposes restrictions
- noise
- little space
- movement artefacts - you have to lie still
- strong magnetic field
- techniques identify areas whose activity is correlated with a certain task - you can't say that an area is specifically involved in that task
What are 2 examples of behaviour recording methods? What is a benefit of these methods?
2.Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS)
Benefit: they can provide info about causation (unlike fMRI etc)
What is meant by the lesion method?
What are the 3 types of dissociations?
- Strong: both tasks impaired but task X is more impaired than task Y
- Trend: worse at tasks than normal but both tasks are roughly on the same level
What inference can be assumed in dissociations; however, what is the problem with this?
However,
- it could be that tasks X and Y involve one process but that task Y is more difficult than task X - the harder the task, the more impaired the patient looks (more than they really are)
= task resource artifact
- it could be that task Y is performed sub-optimally i.e. maybe the patient didn't understand task/ weren't paying attention
= task demand artifact
What is a benefit of double dissociations?
What is a problem with double dissociations?
What are 4 positive points and 2 negative points regarding TMS?
- good temporal resolution: provides info on timing of cognitive functions
- no neural plastcity
- specificity of location
- within subject design is possible
Negative
- Restricted to cortex
- Unknown spread of activation
What method has the best temporal resolution?
(the MEG, EEG, ERP, fMRI and finally PET)
What are 4 pros and 4 cons when experimenting on animals?
- Can impose experimental design
- Can create circumscribed lesions
- Animals are readily available
- Can get data regarding preoperative performance
Cons:
- Indirect link to human cognition
- No verbal report
- Cannot investigate language
- Lesions are irreversible
- Ethical?
What are 2 pros and 4 cons when testing on humans?
- Direct investigation of human cognition
- Can report experiences verbally
Cons
- Nature has no experimental design
- We rarely have preoperative data
- Cases are rarely pure
- Lesions do not respect anatomical boundaries
- Some abnormal brains
What kind of method is TMS and lesion studies?
(every other method is a correlational study)
Describe the purpose of imaging methods.
--> i.e. to localise brain areas which become active during a certain task
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