Works by detecting changes in blood flow and oxygenation that occur as a result of neural activity in specific areas of the brain
When a brain area is more active it consumes more oxygen
So that it can get this extra oxygen blood flow is directed to the active area
fMRI produce 3D images showing which parts of the brain are involved in a particular mental process
This has important implications for our understanding of localisation of function
Electroencephalogram (EEG)
Measure electrical activity within the brain via electrodes that are fixed to an individual’s scalp using a skull cap
The scan recording represents the brainwave patterns that are generated from the action of millions of neurons
This provides an overall account of brain activity
EEG is used by clinicians as a diagnostic tool
If the EEG finds unusual arrhythmic patterns of activity (no particular pattern) this may indicate neurological abnormalities such as epilepsy, tumours or disorders of sleep
Event-related potentials (ERP)
Give an overly general measure of brain activity
However, within overall EEG data there are neural responses associated with specific sensory cognitive and motor events
Researchers have found a way of isolating these specific neural responses
What they did is present a stimulus/task repeatedly
Any neural activity that is not consistent each time is extraneous brain activity and can be ignored
Any neural responses that consistently appear are then clearly the response of a specific stimulus/response
These remaining brainwaves are triggered by specific events are called event-related potentials
Post-mortem examinations
The analysis of a person’s brain following their death
In psychological research, individuals whose brains are subject to a post-mortem are likely to be those who have a rare disorder of have displayed behaviour while they are alive that suggests possible underlying brain damage
Subsequently, when a person dies, the researchers can examine their brains to look for abnormalities that might explain that behaviour and which are not found in control individuals