Psychology Ways to Study the Brain

Positron emission tomography (PET)

A method of brain imaging that assesses metabolic activity by using a radioactive substance injected into the bloodstream. Find the most active brain areas. One downside of PET is the need to inject a radioactive substance into the body. For safety reasons, researchers limit the use of this technology.

Polygraph

A polygraph (lie detector) measures changes in bodily functions (e.g., heart rate, perspiration rate, blood pressure) related to behaviors or mental states. These changes are not reliable measures of lying.

Electrophysiology

An electroencephalograph (EEG) measures the brain's electrical activity. Too noisy or imprecise to isolate specific responses to particular stimuli. Better is to have many trials with a single individual and averaging across the trials.

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI)

An imaging technique used to examine changes in the activity of the working human brain by measuring changes in the blood's oxygen levels.

transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS)

The use of strong magnets to briefly interrupt normal brain activity as a way to study brain regions. Powerful method for examining which brain regions are necessary for specific psychological functions.

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)

With magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), a powerful magnetic field is used to momentarily disrupt the brain's. magnetic forces. During this process, energy is released from brain tissue in a form that can be measured by detectors surrounding the head. MRI is extremely valuable for providing information about the structure of the brain.