CAS PS 101 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Neuroglia, Chemical Substance, Autoimmune Disease

• School: Boston University
• Department: Psychological & Brain Sciences
• Course: CAS PS 101
• Professor: Martha Tompson

Document Summary

H. m. (had epilepsy, got his hippocampus removed, then couldn"t form any new memories but his epilepsy was gone) Strength: live human model, can test in multiple ways. Procedure used to locate brain abnormalities; involves rotating x-ray scanner around skull to create accurate image of a living brain. Drawbacks: poor resolution (can"t see a lot) Technique used to measure/record electrical activity of cortex. Temporal accuracy (timing- responds very quickly to something that happens) Drawbacks: localization is poor (takes entire cortex of the brain, so it doesn"t specify where something is) Uses radio waves to excite hydrogen protons in brain tissue (creating a magnetic field change); a picture of brain structure. Drawbacks: doesn"t measure function; snapshot in time. Uses a radioactive tracer to detect radiation binding to receptor sites; subject is injected with a glucose-like sugar tagged with a radioactive isotope that accumulates in brain cells in direct proportion to their brain activity. Strengths: can select a tracer specific to a neurotransmitter.