This essay will be exploring the depths of cognitive neuroscience, focussing on the most common brain scanning methods with particular reference to non-invasive techniques, whilst also discussing the ethical considerations of some more invasive methods within cognitive neuroscience.
For many years there has been an intense debate between neuroscientists when taking into account ethical considerations in cognitive neuroscience. Although it is quite certain that invasive methods are the most effective when locating functions within the brain, it is also highly unethical, and therefore less effective methods must be used for human participants, although on occasions it is more feasible to use a non human subject in which case rats are regularly used. It is therefore the responsibility of neuroscientists to identify the most effective method of brain scanning for that particular purpose.
Some of the most common non-invasive brain scanning techniques are EEG (Electroencephalogram), fMRI (functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging), and PET (Positron Emission Topography). This essay will evaluate the effectiveness of these methods whilst comparing them to invasive methods in order to assess which of these methods may be the most appropriate alternative to invasive techniques.
In order to take on the ethical considerations involve in cognitive neuroscience, the first method to be developed was the PET scan which was introduced in the late 1950’s. It involves a small amount of radioactive glucose (2-deoxyglucose) to be injected into the carotid artery and accumulated in the most active areas of the body, giving off gamma radiation. These signals are then picked up by the computer’s sensors and transcribed into images of the brain, highl...
... middle of paper ...
...s case, it may be more appropriate to use a slower method such as a PET scan or an fMRI as it may give a more in-depth description of the activities occurring within the brain. A final consideration in this research is the combination of two methods, such as EEG and fMRI as both provide undeniable strengths in their own rights. While EEG’s are useful for measuring neuronal activities, fMRI’s are useful for location specific areas within the brain, and for this reason, both methods are able to work together to provide a high resolution image of the brain while the EEG will allow the researcher to keep a track of the neural activities within the brain.
Works Cited
http://www.biomedresearches.com/root/pages/researches/epilepsy/eeg_fmri_and_pet.html
http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Cognitive_Psychology_and_Cognitive_Neuroscience/Behavioural_and_Neuroscience_Methods#EEG
...owell, E. R., Thompson, P. M., & Toga, A. W. (2004). Mapping changes in the human cortex
Other testing procedures that are commonly employed, in order to gain a better visual image of the excitatory activity in the brain are the PET scan and the MRI. According to Kalat (2004), these methods are non-invasive, meaning that they don’t require the insertion of objects into the brain, yet they yield results that allow researchers to record brain activity. The PET scan (positron emission tomography) involves the researcher injecting a radioactive chemical into the patient’s body, which is then absorbed mainly by the brain’s most active cells. With the use of radioactive detectors, placed around the patient’s head, a map is produced that shows which areas of the brain are most active.
Positron Emission Tomography is a scanning technique that allows us to measure in detail the functioning of distinct areas of the human brain while the patient is comfortable, conscious and alert. PET represents a type of functional imaging, unlike X-rays or CT scans, which show only structural details within the brain. The differences between these types of imaging don’t end there.
Ruff, R. (2003) A friendly critique of neuropsychology: facing the challenges of our future, Archives of Clinical Neuropsychology. 18( 8), 847-864.
Gazzaniga, M.S., Ivry R.B., & Mangun, G.R. Cognitive Neuroscience: The Biology of the Mind. W. W. Norton & Company (1998).
The brain has four major lobes. The frontal lobe, the parietal lobe, the occipital lobe, and temporal lobe are responsible for all of the activities of the body, from seeing, hearing, tasting, to touching, moving, and even memory. After many years of debating, scientist presents what they called the localization issue, Garret explains how Fritsch and Hitzig studied dog with conforming observations, but the cases of Phineas Gage’s accident in 1848 and Paul Broca’s autopsy of a man brain in 1861 really grabbed the attention of an enthusiastic scientific community (Garret 2015 p.6)
...elation between biological factors and behavior. However, the two main brain imaging technologies used when dealing with the neural defect of schizophrenia, are MRI and PET scans. These instruments are quite useful in the fact that they help identify potential cases of a person being diagnosed with a mental illness like schizophrenia and the causes of such a condition. Both have a good number of both advantages and disadvantages. Depending on the situation, the drawbacks of the technology may be higher than the benefits or vice versa. Hence, not one particular brain imaging technology is superior over the other. As a matter of fact, all the instruments combined could create the ideal brain imaging technology that can be applied to the general public in all circumstances when investigating the link between behavior and biological factors in terms of schizophrenia.
Previous studies that have researched the functions of the cerebellum have focused on investigating individuals that have damage to their cerebellum, such as was the case with the Phineas Gage’s frontal lobe study that proved that the frontal lobe served an important role in personality and behavior. Recent studies have had the advantage of new technologies that could significantly aid in identifying whether or not the cerebellum plays a role in specific functions, these include functional imaging techniques such as fMRI and PET imaging, and these recent technological advances have paved the way for new studies that focus on brain region activation. This new method in researching the cerebellum has created new hypotheses for the functions of this crucial brain region, which include but are not limited to cognitive and perceptual functions as well as the already examined motor functions.
There are three approaches for Peter’s situation with are biological, behavioral, and cognitive. Peter’s anxiety is all the stress of taking harder and more rigorous courses in his major. He went to the University’s counselor who diagnosed him with anxiety disorder, which’s a mental problem that is caused when you’re under too much stress.
Other problems with using these noninvasive imaging methods of only few changes of variables in the brain’s activity are that maybe the problem does not reside in the blood, oxygen intake, or glucose utilization. It may be in other factors that we do not observe that is causing the trouble. By being limited to these estimations of brain activity does not really make our effort of correcting the problem that successful.
The basic concept of the lesion method is to determine a correlation between a lesion in a certain region of the brain and occurring behaviours. The lesion method strategy thus involves ablating or destroying a proportion of the brain in order to understand the functional nature of that specific brain part and its effects on behaviour (in Carlson, 2006). A lesion refers to the structural change or damage of brain tissues which may be directly related to a certain aspect of a mental function thus leading to a decline in brain functioning. The existence of lesions in humans can occur in several different ways such as strokes, tumours, traumatic brain injuries, accidents etc and it is these patients that have provided us with a valuable insight into the effects of brain lesions on human behaviour and the nature of neurologically intact individuals (in Carlson, 2006).
Electroencephalography is a cheap non-invasive technique which has become widely used in studying brain activity to measure the electric potential differences on the scalp produced by the active cortical neurons (5).
The biological perspective looks at how the environment and physical causes influences behavior. In the biological perspective, neuroscience plays a crucial role in explaining how the brain and the nervous system influence behaviors. Neuroscientist describes how the brain process thoughts, emotions, feelings, and how the physical body is driven by these mental processes. This branch of psychology, engages in a variety of research such as the study of genetics, brain cells, and the function of the brain across a period of time. This is done using positron emission tomography (PET). This technique is used with radio active glucose to indicate areas of activity in the brain. Another technique that is done to conduct brain research is functional magnetic resonance imaging (IMR). It uses powerful magnets and radio equipment that provides comprehensive pictures of soft tissues of the brain.
Throughout the case study, Dan Lee, a Chinese American, was struggling with concentrating on his college studies and reoccurring personal conflicts amongst people. Dan is an undergraduate student preparing to apply for medical school, which he cannot apply unless he passes all necessary courses. However, he has been having some difficulty with staying on top of all assignments given. Also, he seeks help from the university-counseling center with his feelings of anxiety, tension, sadness, and anger. Many of these feelings arise when his fellow peers, family, and friends does not see that he is always “right” and they are always “wrong”. Although, in some cases he feels disrespected by the way his mother and sister does not abide
(Johannes Muller, 2014). The doctrine of specific nerve energies was his most important contribution to the study of physiology of behavior. He observed that all nerves carry the same basic message, but we discern the messaged of different nerves not the same. Because of his doctrine of specific nerve, experiments were performed directly on the brain of animals, which was done by Pierre Flourens a French physiologist. This was knows as experimental ablation. There after he claimed to have found the part of the brain which was responsible for breathing, controlling heart rate, purposeful movements and auditory reflexes. Soon after this experimental ablation was applied to a human brain. This observation led to show that a portion of the cerebral cortex on the front part of the left side of the brain performs the functions that are necessary for speech. This remains important to the understanding of the brain. (Physiology of Behavior,