Assignment 3

     In the article, “Studying Mind and Brain with fMRI”, a group of researchers aimed to study localization in the brain and how it applies to psychological functions in different regions of the brain. To do this, they looked at fMRIs to further understand the connection between psychological and neural processes. 

    One study evaluated fMRIs of participants while performing various tasks, theorizing that if the same area of the brain is activated during both tasks, they likely are related to the same processes in the brain. Another study on disassociation in the brain monitored activation of brain regions while performing the Stroop task. This showed that while performing a single task, it is possible for multiple regions of the brain to be active at once. The left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex was more active when subjects were told to name the color rather than read the word, and the anterior cingulate cortex was activated by the stimuli itself, thus showing greater activation for the high-conflict incongruent compared with the low-conflict congruent stimuli. 

    In contrast, a third study actually revealed differences in localization between individuals. Activation of the amygdala were consistent when viewing fearful facial expressions, however they became inconsistent when viewing happy facial expressions, showing that brain activation may differ from person to person in certain situations. They also addressed how fMRIs can be used to test psychological models. This happens through the use of fMRIs while testing different model predictions; helping to distinguish between competing psychological theories. The use of fMRIs allows researchers to visually see the activation in these areas to accurately predict which areas are activated throughout various, different tasks.

    Overall, I thought that this article was a little boring to read. However, it was very informational and lead me to learn uses for fMRIs that I was not aware of before. I also learned that viewing happy facial expressions can activate different areas of the brain depending on the person, but that the amygdala was consistent with the viewing of fearful facial expressions. I was not aware of this before I read this article, but it is an interesting concept that I would like to learn more about!