What is a brain lesion method?

Lesions can be produced by passing electrical current (AC or DC) through an electrode or with chemicals (such as kainic acid or 6-hydroxydopamine) that destroy neurons. A lesion can also be made surgically by cutting a tract or by suction removal of part of the brain.

How are lesions used to study the brain?

Lesions allow the scientist to observe any loss of brain function that may occur. For instance, when an individual suffers a stroke, a blood clot deprives part of the brain of oxygen, killing the neurons in the area and rendering that area unable to process information.

What methods are used to study the brain?

These technological methods include the encephalogram (EEG), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and positron emission tomography (PET). These techniques ultimately have the same goal in that they aim to produce coherent representations of the brain.

What is a lesion experiment?

In these experiments, researchers attempt to place lesions in restricted brain regions using a variety of techniques and then infer function of the brain areas by observing changes in behavior. This has been a powerful technique for initially establishing the involvement of a brain structure or region in behavior.

What is a lesion overlap study?

Lesion-overlap difference maps have been used in studies designed to test anatomical hypotheses regarding brain systems critical for various cognitive and behavioral tasks, including naming and recognition of concrete entities (Damasio et al., 2004).

What are brain lesions in humans?

Brain lesions are a type of damage to any part of brain. Lesions can be due to disease, trauma or a birth defect. Sometimes lesions appear in a specific area of the brain. At other times, the lesions are present in a large part of the brain tissue.

What is the purpose of lesion studies?

Many lesion studies aim to test whether damage to a specific gray matter region disrupts a particular behavior.

What is the method of studying brain damaged neurons?

These images also help researchers map the brain regions associated with different behaviors, often by studying people with specific brain injuries. A form of MRI known as functional MRI (fMRI) has emerged as the most prominent neuroimaging technology over the last two decades.

Why do psychologists study the brain?

Studying the Brain. Understanding the brain is of vital importance to psychologists because of its influence over behavior and mental states.

What is an example of a lesion?

Freckles and flat moles are examples of macule skin lesions. Nodules refer to “knot” like growths of abnormal tissue that develop under the skin. For instance, lymph nodes can develop nodules that are visible from the surface of the skin upon inspection.

What is a lesion in medical terms?

Listen to pronunciation. (LEE-zhun) An area of abnormal tissue. A lesion may be benign (not cancer) or malignant (cancer).

What are symptoms of brain lesions?

What Are the Symptoms of a Brain Lesion?

  • Headaches.
  • Neck pain or stiffness.
  • Nausea, vomiting, and lack of appetite.
  • Vision changes or eye pain.
  • Changes in mood, personality, behavior, mental ability, and concentration.
  • Memory loss or confusion.
  • Seizures.
  • Fever.

What do lesion studies tell us?

Lesion studies provide a method of assessing the necessity of different brain regions for particular social behaviors. The group of Watanabe has found that lesions of the ventral telencephalon, but not the dorsal area, cause a reduction of social behavior in goldfish (Shinozuka and Watanabe, 2004 ).

What can zebrafish lesion studies tell us about social behavior?

Jason Rihel, in Behavioral and Neural Genetics of Zebrafish, 2020 Lesion studies provide a method of assessing the necessity of different brain regions for particular social behaviors.

Why do psychologists create lesions in animals?

Psychologists also sometimes intentionally create lesions in animals to study the effects on their behavior. In so doing, they hope to be able to draw inferences about the likely functions of human brains from the effects of the lesions in animals.

What is the difference between behavior-driven and lesions-driven designs?

Rather, patients with lesions are invited to participate in an experiment, thus allowing designs driven by behavior or by lesion location. Behavior-driven designs select patients who show a particular behavior, whether a clinical symptom, such as impulsivity, or impaired performance on a particular experimental task.