KEYWORDS TO REMEMBER

RESEARCH METHODS

Ablation : removal of a brain area

Lesion : researchers damage the brain
Stereotaxic Instrument : a device for the precise placement of electrodes in the
brain

Brain Damage :
- Inalibilty to recognie faces
- Inability to Perceive motion
- Shift of attention to the right side of the world
- Changes in motivation and emotion
- Memory impairment
Electric Lesion : electric damage to axons passing through & damages
neurons

ALAT- ALAT
Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS):
- applying magnetic stimulus to a portion of the scalp, can stimulate neurons in the
area below the magnet
Electroencephalograph (EEG) :
- records electrical activity of the brain through electrodes ranging from just a few
to more than a hundred attached to the scalp
- distinguishing between wakefulness and various stages of sleep, record brain
activity from a stimulus
Magnetoencephalograph (MEG) :
- measures the faint magnetic fields generated by brain activity
- identifies approximate location of activity to within about a centimeter
- Times at which various brain areas respond and thereby trace a wave of brain
activity from its point of origin to the other areas that process it
Positron- emission Tomoraphy (PET) :
- Image of an activity in a living brain by recordin the emission of radioactivity from
injected chemicals (glucose)
- The persons head is surrounded by a set of gamma ray detectors
- Radioactive chemicals exposed to the brain
Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) :
- Record the energy released by water molecules after removal of a magnetic field
- Detect amount of hemoglobin with water
 - Record brain activity while reading and during a comparison task and then
subtract the brain activity during the comparison task to determine which areas
are more active during reading
- Could identify the word a person wants to express
Computerized Axial Tomography (CAT) :
- Helo detect tumors and other structural abnormalities
Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) :
- Applies a powerful magnetic field to align all of the axes of rotation, and then tilts
them with a brief radio frequency field
- Drawback: the person must lie motionless in a confusing noisy apparatus