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Brain scanning - Coggle Diagram
Brain scanning
1848 Phineas Gage accident and brain scan techniques
Before advances in cognitive neuroscience, case studies like the 1848 Phineas Gage accident gave insights into the localisation of function in the brain.
1848 Phineas Gage accident
Phineas Gage suffered a horrendous accident when he was 25.
An iron tamping bar went through his eye socket and came out the top of his head.
He survived the accident but underwent a personality change. His frontal lobe was damaged - this area of the brain is involved in decision-making, social behaviour and impulse control.
Before advances in cognitive neuroscience, it was cases studies like this that gave sights into the localisation of function int he brain.
Techniques used in brain scans
Position Emission Tomography (PET)
Event Related Potentials (ERPs)
Magnetoencephalogram (MEGs)
Electroencephalography (EEG)
Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI)
Maguire et al (2000) - study on taxi drivers' brains
Maguire et al (2000) studied London taxi drivers to discover whether changes in the brain could be detected as a result of their extensive navigational experience.
Procedure
A natural experiment
Using an MRI scanner, the researchers calculated the amount of grey matter in the brains of taxi drivers and a set of control participants.
Results and conclusions
Results
The posterior hippocampi of taxi drivers were significantly larger relative to those of controls and posterior hippocampal volume was positively correlated with the amount of time they had spent taxi driving.
Conclusion
This demonstrates brain plasticity. The structure of the brain can change in response to the demands placed upon it.