PSYC 1000 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Positron Emission Tomography, Parasympathetic Nervous System
28 Jul 2016
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Document Summary
Neuroscience: the study of the brain and the nervous system. Until recently it was difficult, if not impossible, to study what goes on in the human brain without causing damage to brain tissue. Several decades ago, human neuroscience relied largely on the following methods: Examining autopsy tissue: allows neuroscientists to see what our brains look like, but has the obvious draw backs of telling them little about how these systems worked when the person was alive and using them. Testing the behaviour of patients with damage to certain parts of the brain: scientist called neuropsychologists have learned a great deal about the brain from studying patients with brain damage. Patients with localized brain damage often have loss of a particular function. The type of loss of function then suggests what the brain region did before it was damaged. The neurophysiological approach involves researchers making assumptions based on information about the normally functioning brain from the damaged brain.
