Three Brain Imaging Techniques

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Describe three brain-imaging techniques and explain what the literature tells us about the function and structure of the brain
This essay entails examples of experiments from literature that have used neuroimaging techniques to comprehend the structure and function of the brain.
Cognitive neuroscientists research human cognition in various way. Positron emission tomography (PET), functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) are the neuroimaging techniques that this essay talks about.
PET is the first neuroimaging technique that will be discussed, it is used to identify diseases such as brain tumours, Alzheimer’s disease, and Epilepsy. It involves finding of positrons, they are atomic fragments radiated …show more content…
In 2005 Mosconi et al, conducted a longitudinal study measuring the metabolic activities in the hippocampus of 53 healthy and normal subjects. They were either 9 years old or 24 years old using PET scan alongside a computer programme they had developed which measures metabolism in the hippocampus, called ‘HipMask’. The purpose of this study was to investigate the interaction between hippocampus and Alzheimer’s disease and metabolic activities in the hippocampus. They discovered that subjects who displayed early signs of reduced metabolism in the hippocampus were later associated with Alzheimer’s disease. The reliability of this study is questionable as it went on for a long time. This shows that brain-imaging techniques like PET scans efficiently produce authentic findings, since those who had low metabolic rates were later associated with Alzheimer’s disease. Also, PET scans show signs to that reveals early stages of brain degeneration which is important in discovering if parts of the brain such as Hippocampus deteriorating as memory process is not …show more content…
Quantitative analysis of the cerebral region was used to determine the metabolic rate of brain defects, it was discovered that a lot of severely injured patients had higher rates of metabolic brain defects, despite the level of brain defects they had done did not significantly correlate with the level of consciousness. Cause and effect cannot be established, as it is correlational study. This result shows that PET scans can be used to evaluate patients with brain injuries, allowing neuroscientist to be aware of severity of the brain injury at hand.
Alvai et al used PET scan to discover a good correlation between the severity of head trauma and low metabolic rates in the whole brain, significant low metabolic rates were found in some patients with head trauma, because their glucose metabolism had significantly reduced. So, there is a belief that cerebral metabolism is a good index of functional activity in patients. This was done with the aid of a PET scan so show one of the functions of the brain. Cause and effect cannot be established, as it is correlational
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