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Essay / Research Paper Abstract
This 4 page paper designs a test to assess if there is any link between the amygdale within the brain and the emotional of fear in human subjects. The paper looks at the best way to image the responses in the brain and then at how issues such as ethics can be overcome and how the test could be conducted. The bibliography cites 1 source.
Page Count:
4 pages (~225 words per page)
File: TS14_TEfearamy.rtf
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Unformatted sample text from the term paper:
The studies have been conducted in a number of ways using both animal and human subjects. This is research that needs to be built on, in designing a research to
assess if there is an involvement with the specific emotion of fear in humans there is a challenging task due to the difficulty of measuring the responses and the ethical
constraints put in place when using human subjects. The first consideration is to determine which brain imaging is to be used. Here the approach of functional neuroimaging will be
the best in order to identify the areas where there is activity in the brain when certain emotions are stimulated (Gabrieli, 2005). The two main imaging processes that could
be used are positron-emission tornogrpahy (PET) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) these will allow the visualisation of the mental processes (Gabrieli, 2005). There are some factors we
need to remembers, both PET and fMRI as they are not able to measure the direct signals from the neural activity, but measure the effects of neural activity as a
result of changes in the blood flow or metabolism. The PET measures the vascular changes, the fMRI sees the measurement of the adjustments in the magnetic properties that are blood-oxygen
dependant (Gabrieli, 2005). When the brain is activated by a stimulus there will be the firing of neurons, for these to fire there is the need to use the
available oxygen, this causes a short slight dip in the oxygenisation of the surrounding vasculature. The dip cannot be measured, but the compensation system that sends extra oxygen to the
area can be detected as a secondary effect as this is a system that sends the additional levels in a sort of fail safe system (Gabrieli, 2005). This change can
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