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Brain week 1 resit ([H2] How does the nervous system function? (Peripheral…
Brain week 1 resit
[H2] How does the nervous system function?
Central Nervous System
Peripheral Nervous System
Somatic Nervous System
: All the spinal and cranial nerves that carry sensory information to the CNS from the muscles, joints and skin. Also transmits outgoing motor instructions to produce movement
Cranial nerves: These nerves connect parts of the head with the brain. There are twelve pairs of cranial nerves
Spinal nerves:
Autonomic Nervous System
: Balances the body's internal organs via the parasympathetic and the sympathetic nerves
[H7] How do we study the brain's struture and function?
Brain Reading techniques
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Techniques that measure
electrical activity
Single Cell Recording
Extracellular Recording
Using micro electrodes and that are
not
inserted inside a cell but put
close to
multiple of them: now you can distinguish up to fourty neurons
Intracellular Recording
Now the electrodes are places
inside
a cell. This gives a clear reading of this
single neurons activity
.
EcoG
(Electrocorticography)
Putting tiny
electrodes
directly
on top of the brain surface
-- measures electrical activity.
EEG
(Electroencephalography)
Putting
electrodes
on the
scalp
that measure the
(electrical) activity of the brain
. This method is completely
non invasive
.
You can find
regular wave patterns
back in the EEG during
specific circumstances
; e.g.
alpha thythm
is found often when people are in a relaxed state (with eyes closed) and aren't performing any tasks.
This you can manipulate into
ERP's
(Event related potentials)
ERP
reading is relating the
electrical activity
measurements in time to
events
that occured while measuring (e.g. playing a sound or any other sensible stimulus).
You can find
Positive
(P) and
Negative
(N)
Peaks
back in the ERP
MEG
(Magnetoencephalography)
Magnetic detectors
are put
on top of the scalp
that read the
magnetic potentials
Time-frequency plots
can plot a signal captured in a
function of frequency and time
Techniques for determining the different
functions
of the
different areas
in the brain
fNIRS
(functional near infrared spectroscopy)
Form of tomography, where light transmitted through the cortical tissue is gathered to form an image of the brains
usage of oxygen
PET
(positron emission tomography)
Technique that sees the
blood flow changes
in the brain. It measures
changes in oxygen and glucose levels
, and is therefore handy in
analyzing metabolic activities
in the brain tissue.
fMRI
(functional magnetic resonance imaging)
Reads the
changes in iron or oxygen
in the brain while the person is
performing a task / is resting
. It measures the
blood flow
in the brain and shows these via its
activity patterns
.
Provides
BOLD signal
of blood deoxyhaemoglobin
You have to make a specific amount of inferences from the resulting image to that what's really going on. This is measured as
inferential distance
.
Voxels
(volume + pixels), parts of a 3D grid, are used to visualize & analyze scientific data
Determining the brain structure
Form
structural images
(naming all different areas) and
contrast images
(show differences between light and dark regions)
MRI
(magnetic resonance imaging)
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Makes a
3 dimensional image
from sending a
magnetic field
through the brain, and later a radiowave . Next, it reads the radio signal that the
hydrogen atoms
have sent.
MRS
(magnetic resonance spectroscopy) uses thesignal from the hydrogen protons to determine the concentration of brain metabolites
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DTI
(diffusion tensor imaging) detects movement and direction of H2O molecules
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CT
(computed tomography) give you an image picturing the brain in its cross section. Form of X-Ray.
Stimulating specific brain areas
DBS
(deep brain stimulation) = technique where electrodes are surgically put insice the brain to stimulate a specific area of interest in order to producs specific behavior.
TMS
(transcranial magnetic stimulation) a coil is put over the scalp that sends magnetic fields in order to stimulate the underlying brain tissue.
Other methods include
Cerebral voltammetry
(identifies amount of particular brain chemicals)
Optogenetics
combine genetics & light in order to control living cells
Histological Staining
is to stain the brains so that cerebral cells can be seen and identified with the help of a light microscope
Choosing a right method
[H1] What are the origins of brain and behaviour?
static (MRI) vs. dynamic (fMRI)
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