Read the example experiments below and indicate which of the following invasive

Question

Read the example experiments below and indicate which of the following invasive research techniques would be most appropriate to use:

(a) electrical stimulation methods,

(b) recording methods,

(c) lesion methods, or

(d) genetic techniques.

Explain your choices for each example in a sentence or two.

1. A graduate student wants to determine whether damage to the amygdala will affect memory of a fear-inducing situation (an encounter with a predator) in rats.

2. A senior scientist is investigating whether walking across a balance beam is associated with activity in the frontal lobe of the cerebral cortex in young mice.

3. An undergraduate is assisting with a study that is investigating how inducing activity in neurons of the hippocampus might affect performance on a spatial navigation test in rats.

4. A government research team has created a mouse that lacks a certain type of dopamine receptors, which are coded for by the DRD4 gene, in order to determine whether these receptors are necessary for the addictive effects of cocaine.

Explanation / Answer

1) (c) Lesion Methods. Usually, in laboratory animals, invasive procedures like stereotaxic surgery, etc., helps to monitor exact brain damage and related functioning. Therefore to specifically study the damage to the amygdala and its effect on memory, the invasive procedure will help produce the closest viable result.

2) (b) Recording Method helps to monitor and record brain activities, while the brain is functioning or the subject is given a certain task to perform. One of the most widely used technique includes the functional MRI, which helps to detect activities in various part of the brain through monitoring increased oxygen flow in the brain. Other techniques include PET, EEG, ECT, etc. Therefore this study requires the activity in the frontal lobe while the beam is being balanced, that means the method should be one which helps to record the brain activity while the brain is functioning.

3) (a)Electrical Stimulation method is non-invasive and it helps to study how stimulation of a certain brain area can produce a certain change in activity or firing of neurons through implanted electrodes. It will help the researchers to understand the role of the hippocampus during spatial navigation, and how the stimulation increases or impacts the performance.  

4) (d) Genetic techniques like gene knockout techniques, wherein the gene is made inoperative in the organism and thus this helps to study how the missing genes may alter other genes, various neural abnormalities and other related activities are noted to understand the impact of the certain knocked out gene.

Related Questions

Navigate

• Browse (All)
• Browse R
• Subjects

Integrity-first tutoring: explanations and feedback only — we do not complete graded work. Learn more.