Experimental 2
Neuroscientific Research
Lecture summaries
Please do not just share this with your fellow students.
A lot of work goes into creating these summaries. And I already put them at a low price, so
everyone who needs it can afford it. So would really appreciate if you did not share it.
THANK YOUUUUU
Now good luck studying!
,Lecture 1
EEG
Reads electrical currents from the scale
- → quite remote (hair, fluid, scull, etc.) → not very good spatial resolution, but
great temporal resolution
- Mainly sensitive to activation stemming from gyri
- Different types of analysis
- Event related potential
- Event related frequencies
- Microstates
MEG
- Magnetoencephalography
- Reads magnetic field around the scalp
- Great temporal resolution, poor spatial resolution
- Mainly sensitive to activation stemming from sulci
- The person is not allowed to move at all, also only 2 machines in the Netherlands
MRI
- Magnetic resolution imaging
- Poor temporal resolution, great spatial resolution
- Based on activity/blood/oxygen ratio which is rather slow → temporal not
very accurate
- Different MRI uses
- Structural MRI
- → quite detailed, takes around 8 min
- Functional MRI (BOLD)
- → look at different Foxels of the brain and see where there are
activities
- takes quite some work to read those images properly
- Diffusion Tensor Imaging (tractography)
TMS
- Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation
- Single pulse TMS→ with precise timing of the single pulse, you can
measure time quite precisely
- Size of about a 10ct coin
- Repetitive TMS
- Activate it long or often enough until this region does not work anymore. This
legion takes about an hour - 1,5
- Measure what they do (or
not do)
- Paired pulse TMS
- Gives two opposite pulses
- Can measure activity quite
well as well
Psychophysiological measures
Various methods
, - Eye-tracking
- Skin conduction
- Blood Pressure, etc.
How to choose
- Depends on research question, previous research, budget, and available equipment
Why do neuroimaging?
- You want to study the brain
- It helps you sell your research (the cynical reason)
- It helps you answer your psychological research question
- Neutrally constraint theories
- We know (to some degree) what happens psychologically and we can image
what happens in the neurons, but the question is still, what connects those
two
- Neutrally testable theories
- Neutrally inspired theories
- We see a phenomenon in neurological points, creating new theories
We believe that the brain is an important factor in driving behaviour. But we must realise that it is
not the only factor! Also:
- Peripheral nervous system
- Chicken runs around without a head
- The body
- Smiling → people find movies funnier
- And in the (social) environment
Mapping psychology in the brain
- How are all the factors of psychology (perception, language, all kinds of cognitive
mechanisms) mapped on the brain?
- There can be quite a lot of overlap of mapping, e.g., multiple different emotions/cognitions
can activate similar brain areas. Possible causes:
- Poor localisation → maybe to undetailed of where the activity is
- Poor operationalisation → different behaviour/tasks can be
inappropriate to measure what they want to measure
- Unknown brain ontology → the brain might not see the world the way we
see it, aka. The brain has different mechanisms the way we see it. The
way we understand somethings limits/guides the way we look
at/study/understand the brain
- There is a continuous cycle of understanding the brain. We learn about cognitions, then
look at the brain, from which we gain new knowledge that we need to incorporate into our
understanding of the cognitions etc.
Assumptions we make to start looking at the brain (assumptions made to use neurology)
(e.g., gasping movement with different hands)
Student answers:
- that motor movements are mapped in the brain
- That all other influences stay the same between conditions
- That something that looks common is common. But we are limited by our measurement
techniques
Neuroscientific Research
Lecture summaries
Please do not just share this with your fellow students.
A lot of work goes into creating these summaries. And I already put them at a low price, so
everyone who needs it can afford it. So would really appreciate if you did not share it.
THANK YOUUUUU
Now good luck studying!
,Lecture 1
EEG
Reads electrical currents from the scale
- → quite remote (hair, fluid, scull, etc.) → not very good spatial resolution, but
great temporal resolution
- Mainly sensitive to activation stemming from gyri
- Different types of analysis
- Event related potential
- Event related frequencies
- Microstates
MEG
- Magnetoencephalography
- Reads magnetic field around the scalp
- Great temporal resolution, poor spatial resolution
- Mainly sensitive to activation stemming from sulci
- The person is not allowed to move at all, also only 2 machines in the Netherlands
MRI
- Magnetic resolution imaging
- Poor temporal resolution, great spatial resolution
- Based on activity/blood/oxygen ratio which is rather slow → temporal not
very accurate
- Different MRI uses
- Structural MRI
- → quite detailed, takes around 8 min
- Functional MRI (BOLD)
- → look at different Foxels of the brain and see where there are
activities
- takes quite some work to read those images properly
- Diffusion Tensor Imaging (tractography)
TMS
- Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation
- Single pulse TMS→ with precise timing of the single pulse, you can
measure time quite precisely
- Size of about a 10ct coin
- Repetitive TMS
- Activate it long or often enough until this region does not work anymore. This
legion takes about an hour - 1,5
- Measure what they do (or
not do)
- Paired pulse TMS
- Gives two opposite pulses
- Can measure activity quite
well as well
Psychophysiological measures
Various methods
, - Eye-tracking
- Skin conduction
- Blood Pressure, etc.
How to choose
- Depends on research question, previous research, budget, and available equipment
Why do neuroimaging?
- You want to study the brain
- It helps you sell your research (the cynical reason)
- It helps you answer your psychological research question
- Neutrally constraint theories
- We know (to some degree) what happens psychologically and we can image
what happens in the neurons, but the question is still, what connects those
two
- Neutrally testable theories
- Neutrally inspired theories
- We see a phenomenon in neurological points, creating new theories
We believe that the brain is an important factor in driving behaviour. But we must realise that it is
not the only factor! Also:
- Peripheral nervous system
- Chicken runs around without a head
- The body
- Smiling → people find movies funnier
- And in the (social) environment
Mapping psychology in the brain
- How are all the factors of psychology (perception, language, all kinds of cognitive
mechanisms) mapped on the brain?
- There can be quite a lot of overlap of mapping, e.g., multiple different emotions/cognitions
can activate similar brain areas. Possible causes:
- Poor localisation → maybe to undetailed of where the activity is
- Poor operationalisation → different behaviour/tasks can be
inappropriate to measure what they want to measure
- Unknown brain ontology → the brain might not see the world the way we
see it, aka. The brain has different mechanisms the way we see it. The
way we understand somethings limits/guides the way we look
at/study/understand the brain
- There is a continuous cycle of understanding the brain. We learn about cognitions, then
look at the brain, from which we gain new knowledge that we need to incorporate into our
understanding of the cognitions etc.
Assumptions we make to start looking at the brain (assumptions made to use neurology)
(e.g., gasping movement with different hands)
Student answers:
- that motor movements are mapped in the brain
- That all other influences stay the same between conditions
- That something that looks common is common. But we are limited by our measurement
techniques
