Functional Imaging

For centuries, scientists were restricted in their ability to study the living human brain. Most studies were either done on animal subjects or in post-mortem human brains. While there is no dispute about the valuable information gained by comparing the brain regions damaged in people who suffered from strokes or other accidents, those studies are, by definition, of damaged brains rather than of the normal working brains. The past few decades, on the other hand, have revolutionized the study of the brain with the development of new tools that allow scientists to observe the living brain at work, even in people without any disease or injury. While these new techniques have offered new insights, they are not without their limitations, as the literature makes clear. As newspapers and magazines portray images of brain “hot spots” during one mental activity or another, people who are unaware of how those images are constructed may come away with a simplistic idea of how the brain functions.

In this Assignment, you will provide a description of how functional imaging studies are conducted and you will design an experiment that will help you better understand the region of the brain that you used in this week’s Discussion.

Note: The area of the brain that you select should be used for both the Discussion and Assignment that are due this week.

To prepare:

• Review this week’s Learning Resources about functional imaging and conduct additional research as necessary to support your Assignment.
• You will use your knowledge of functional imaging to design a functional neuroimaging study to learn more about the region of the brain that you identified in this week’s Discussion.
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Write a 2-page APA-style paper that addresses the following:

• Describe how functional imaging studies (fMRI, PET, MEG, EEG), in general, are conducted. Use references from literature in the Walden Library to support your description.
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• Explain the role of statistics and data processing in comparing groups (task vs. control, clinical vs. nonclinical).
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• Use your understanding of functional imaging to design an experiment to better understand the portion of the brain you used for this week’s Discussion.
• Include your research question, the task and control conditions, and a brief description of what you might find.
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• Explain how you would describe the results of your study to a general audience outside of the scientific community so that they will understand the results and the limitations.