Chapter 13 Study Questions

Define “converging operations.”
What problems exist with searching for the brain regions that support a psychological construct like “attention” or “intelligence”? Given these problems, how can these constructs be studied using fMRI?
Why does neural or physiological activity not have to be isomorphic with the time course of the underlying psychological construct?
What are the differences between manipulation and measurement techniques in neuroscience?
What are the effects of direct cortical stimulation using electrodes upon brain activity? Provide examples from particular brain regions.
What is transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS)?
What makes TMS a complementary technique to fMRI? What sorts of questions that cannot be answered using either independently can be answered by using both?
What advantages do brain lesion studies provide over studies using neuroimaging techniques? What are the major limitations of brain lesion studies?
What is “imaging genomics”?
What physiological processes associated with neuronal activity lead to measurable changes in electrical potential?
What do single-unit recordings measure?
What are the limitations of single-unit recordings of neuronal activity?
Under what conditions can single-unit recording be conducted in humans?
What is the difference between EEG and ERP?
How can ERPs be used to constrain interpretations of fMRI data?
Why does the “inverse problem” impair accurate localization of the neural generators of scalp-recorded electrophysiological data?
What is magnetoencephalography? What are its advantages as compared to fMRI?
Why might researchers collect fMRI data from nonhuman animals (as opposed to direct neuronal recordings in those animals)?
Why is it important for scientists to base their research programs on questions and not techniques?