Discuss The Use Of Brain Imaging Technologies (For Example, Cat, Pet, Mri, Fmri, Meg, Eeg) In Investigating The Relationship Between Biological Factors And Behaviour.

Imaging techniques are good to use when studying human behaviour for many reasons for they have many pros, however the main reason they are great to use is that they are non invasive. Non-invasive imaging techniques are, just as the name suggests, techniques that show images of inside the human body through non-invasive techniques. This is in comparison to the elder days when if a scientistwanted to observe the effect of, say, exercise on the brain, he would have to wait until the subject died before observing the effect. Now, however, said scientist can observe the effect of exercise on the brain not only while the subject is alive but it is also a quick and painless technique. This can be done with one of the many specific imaging technologies produced now a days, to name a few we havethe PET scan, the MRI, fMRI, CAT scan, EEG scan and the MEG scan.
All of the imaging technologies previously mentioned have many things in common, but the main thing is that they are all non invasive techniques that can be used for either conducting studies on human subjects or can be applied in the actual diagnosing of certain diseases and abnormalities in humans. They all have certaindifferences as well, and can be used for different studies and circumstances because of the way they work. The positron emission tomography, or the PET scan, is a scan particularly useful for cancer research and when looking at the brain or heart. The scan itself works in the following way: the subject being diagnosed or studied is injected with a chemical substance containing a radioactive transmitterand glucose, once in the body the substance will go to the organ that is being observed so that when the actual scan is performed a 3D image will be picked up. Magneto encephalography, best known as the MEG scan, on the other hand, is best used when scanning the brain because it is able to pick up on the small magnetic fields made by the brain. It does this through sensitive devices called SQUIDSthat are attached to the patient’s head prior to the scan.
To continue wit the description of a handful of imaging techniques we have the EEG scan. The EEG scan, or the electroencephalography scan, is in some ways similar to the MEG scan in that it records electrical waves in the brain. This scan is particularly used to diagnoses epilepsy, brain death, comas, and to detect tumours. All ofthese things can be done with other scans such as the MRI scan which means that the usage of the EEG scan has decreased, however it still holds its place because of its special ability at millisecond-range temporal resolution. The CAT scan is another non-invasive technique that is often used on patients. It is often referred to as the evolutionary x-ray because it takes the same principle as the x-raybut, in difference, the CAT scan can form 3D images of the brain and organs and one can even observe these at “slices” at a time.
The MRI scan is a very powerful scan that can result in the images of almost any body tissue. The magnetic resonance imaging scan does this by sending powerful radio waves into the body, which are then altered and reciprocated by the tissues that received these. Acomputer then picks up on these waves and forms an image that shows very precisely what is going on in the body. This scan can do numerous things, from finding tumours in the body to localizing broken bones and such. To go on with this, there is now a scan called the fMRI or the functional magnetic resonance imaging that does the same sort of thing as an MRI but takes it to another level. The fMRIcan, in specific, sense the change in blood flow in bodies, more specifically the change in blood flow related to neural activity; in the brain or spinal cord.
These imaging techniques have been used for research studies in the biological level of analysis and they have come in quite handy because of their non-invasive aspects. For example, using the PET scan, scientists have found possible...