preview

Brain Imaging

Decent Essays
Open Document

Discussing the Use of Brain Imaging Technologies In Investigating the Relationships Between Biological Factors and Behavior
This essay will attempt to offer a balanced review of the use of brain imaging technologies in investigating the relationships between biological factors and behavior. The different types of brain imaging technologies are PET: Positron Emission Topography, MRI: Magnetic Resonance Imaging, fMRI: functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging, EEG: Electroencephalogram, and lastly CAT: Computerized Axial Tomography (Demitri, 2007). Brain imaging technologies are methods used in psychology to examine and further understand the human brain. While each of the differing methods has qualities that are beneficial in general it is important …show more content…

MRIs are used to allows researchers to see structures in the brain (2007) A great advantage to using MRI is it is non-invasive. The less researchers harm their patients the more ethical it is which can help with the validity. The downside is however, researchers can only use MRIs to look at activation in the brain making its use limited. A study that can show how MRI scans care used to investigate the relationships between biological factors and behavior is Maguire et al. (2000). The aim of this study was to determine if well experienced taxi drivers in London would have differing hippocampus structures compared to London bus drivers. MRI scans were used to scan the structure of their hippocampus, and measured the amount of gray matter in their brain. Maguire noticed there was a larger amount of gray matter found in taxi drivers. Maguire found the data could suggest that the increase amount of gray matter in the hippocampus of taxi drivers is due to the active and repetitive use of the spatial memory skills required to remember roads; the neurons are stronger in areas of the brain which are used most. Maguire because of the MRI technology was able to observe the structures of the subject's brains and find a correlation between environment and neuroplasticity which has been known to affects behavior in terms of memory. Maguire effectively used MRI scans to investigate the structure of the hippocampus, he could not have done this using other technologies such as an EEG or a PET scan. With this study Maguire was able to see the biological factor of brains areas and the hippocampus as well as the behavior of memory and spacial

Get Access