PSYC 211 Chapter Notes - Chapter 5.1: Fontanelle, Neurotransmitter, Stereotactic Surgery
3 Jun 2016
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Document Summary
Study of the physiology of behaviour involves the efforts of scientists in many disciplines and a research project in behavioural neuroscience requires competence in many experimental techniques. Because different procedures often produce contradictory results, it is important to be familiar with the advantages and disadvantages of the different methods. One of the most important research methods used to investigate brain functions involves destroying part of the brain and evaluating the animal"s subsequent behaviour. This method is called experimental ablation, and most often part of the brain tissue is damaged, and simply left in place: it is the oldest method in neuroscience, and remains in common use today. A lesion is a wound or injury, and a researcher who destroys part of the brain usually refers to the damage as a brain lesion, and experiments which study an animal"s subsequent behaviour are lesion studies. The distinction between brain function and behaviour is an important one.
