Produces images that have very high resolution, showing by the millimetre
Expensive compared to tother neuroimaging techniques
Can only capture a clear image if the person is still
Only measures blood flow in the brain - not a direct measure of neural activity
Has poor temporal resolution - 5 second lag behind on the image on the screen and the initial firing or neuronal activity
EGG
Proved invaluable in diagnosis of conditions such as epilepsy
Contributed to the understanding of stages in sleep
Extremely high temporal resolution
Can detect brain activity at a resolution of a single millisecond (or less)
Information received is very general - from many thousands of neurons
Not useful for pinpointing the exact source of neural activity
Cannot reveal what is occurring in deeper regions of the brain such as the hypothalamus
ERP
Addresses the issues of EEGs
Brings more specific measurement of neural processes than before
Isolate neural responses to a stimulus
Excellent temporal resolution
Measure how a person processes a stimulus without a person showing any behavioural response
In order to establish pure data in ERP studies, background noise and extraneous material must be completely eliminated
Not easy to always achieve
Small and difficult to pick out from other electrical activity in the brain
Requires a large number of trails to gain meaningful data
Post-mortem examinations
Vital for providing foundation for early understanding of brain
Post-mortem studies improve medial knowledge and help generate hypotheses for further study
Causation issues - observed damage to the brain may not be linked to the disorder or deficit the individual was thought to have
may be linked to other unrelated trauma or decay
Ethical issues - patients may not be able to provide informed consent, e.g., HM who lost his ability to form memories and was not able to provide such consent despite post-mortem research being performed on his brain