PSY 1101 Lecture Notes - Calcarine Sulcus, Evoked Potential, Visual Cortex

• School: University of Ottawa
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSY 1101
• Professor: Kenneth Campbell

Document Summary

Anatomical techniques: slicing the human brain, viewing macrostructures with the human eye or microstructures with a microscope, appropriate for cadavers. Advantage: provides high resolution images of the human brain. Provides an image of the structure but does not indicate the function of the structure: resolution is limited (cannot see single cells, very expensive. In the clinical setting: observe functions lost because of brain injury (trauma, stroke, tumours, etc). Problem: human brain injures are often widespread and not higly specific. In the experimental setting: lesion a specific part of animal brains to determine its function. Stimulate a specific area of the brain to observe the function it controls. Problems: in many cases, it is difficult to know just what an animal is experiencing. Higher mental states may well differ across species. Advantage: provides an image of the function of various structures of the brain. Indicates which areas are active (and require glucose) for a task to be completed.