THE BRAIN Unit 3B

Tools for examining the brain

EEG-electroencephalogram: is an amplified reading or your brain’s electrical impulses, it can be used to determine which electrical impulse is connected to which stimulus

Lesion: tissue destruction- can be natural or experimental, small amounts of tissue are destroyed leaving the surrounding tissue intact. This allows the researcher to document the impact of tissue loss on behavior, thinking, etc.

More Tools

CT scan- computed tomography- examines the brain through X-ray photographs, most effective in looking for brain damage

PET scan-positive emission tomography-shows brain activity by measuring glucose consumption in the brain, uses radioactive glucose and measures levels of radioactivity in brain

MRI-magnetic resonance imaging- uses a magnetic field to align brain atoms, then disrupts that alignment with a radio wave pulse, following the disruption it measures signals released as atoms adjust

fMRI-functional MRI-measures blood flow/oxygen in short spans (every second or so) can detect brain activity through measurement of blood flow