This document discusses various research methods and tools used in cognitive neuroscience, including questionnaires, eye trackers, EEG/MEG, PET, MRI/fMRI, NIRS, TMS, and tDCS. It provides examples of how each method is used, such as measuring brain activity with EEG during eye open and closed states, and detecting awareness in vegetative patients using fMRI.

1. 研究方法&工具
蕭富仁

2. 研究方法與工具
• 問卷(questionaire)
• 眼動儀(eye tracker)
• 腦電儀(electroencephalogram, EEG)/腦磁儀
(magnetoencephalogram, MEG)
• 正子輻射造影 (positron emission tomography, PET)
• 磁振造影(magnetic resonance image, MRI)/功能性
磁振造影(functional MRI)
• 近紅外光譜儀(near-infrared reflectance
spectroscopy, NIRS)
• 穿顱磁刺激 (transcranial magnetic stimulator,
TMS)/穿顱直流電刺激(transcranial direct current
stimulator, tDCS)

3. 問卷
(Questionaire)

6. McGill Pain Questionnaire

7. Wong Baker Faces Pain Rating Scale

8. Visual analog scale

10. 眼動儀
(Eye tracker)

12. 美女?
(圖片in google picture)

22. 腦電儀
(electroencephalogram, EEG)

23. Electro-Encephalograghy (EEG)
• Electrical current originating in the cortical areas
• Measured across scull and tissue - adjustments for physical
properties
current
+-

28. Brain activities with eye-open and eye-
close states

30. Binding problem & winner-take-all strategy

31. Tallon-Baudry and Bertrand, Trends Cog. Sci., 3, 151-162, 1999.

32. 腦磁儀
(Magnetoencephalogram, MEG)

33. current
+
-

34. MEG
Measures changes in magnetic fields that accompany electrical activity.

36. V
skull
CSF
tissue
MEG
EEG
B
- noninvasive measurement
- direct measurement.
scalp
recording
surface
current
flow
orientation
of magnetic
field
Origin of the signal

37. MEG
An example (auditory task):

38. Rolandic mu rhythm
• The 20-Hz rhythm is first transiently, and bilaterally,
suppressed and then strongly enhanced, with a peak at 500-
700 ms.

39. Motor cortex and mirror neurons

40. 正子輻射造影
(Positron Emission Tomography, PET)

41. PET
Positron Emission Tomography
Requires the injection of a positron-emitting
radioactive isotope (tracer)
Examples:
C-11 Glucose analogs (metabolism)
O-15 water (blood flow or volume)
C-11 or O-15 carbon monoxide
PET tracers must have short half-life, e.g.
C-11 (20 min.), O-15 (2 min.). Cyclotron!
Positron + electron  2 gamma ray beams.
Gamma radiation is detected by ring of
detectors, source is plotted in 2-D producing
an image slice.

42. Sensing Techniques-PET
Radioactive element decays, gives off positron
Positron moves a short distance and gives off two
gamma rays in opposite directions

43. Sensing Techniques-PET

44. PET Scans

45. Parkinson’s disease 的治療
• L-dopa (precursor of DA): 治標不治本
–無法逆轉degeneration in SN
–最後導致失效（less and less effective）
• Brain stimulation within basal ganglia (deep brain
stimulation)
–要動手術插入電擊
–要重複刺激大腦
• Deliver a neurotrophic factor (glial-derived NF)
• Tissue transplant
(fetal cells: DA-containing cells): Fig
11.21 效果仍有爭議

46. 磁振造影
(magnetic resonance image, MRI)
功能性磁振造影(functional MRI, fMRI)

47. MRI Scans

48. MRI Scans

49. Artifact

50. Activation
Map
Increased
Neuronal
Activity
Increased
Oxygenated
Blood Flow
HbO2 Hb
arterial venous
Perform
a Task
Non-invasive, small clinical risk
Behavior
Functional
Brain Anatomy
Functional MRI

51. 同理心：疼痛

52. 同理心：疼痛

53. 同理心：疼痛 (self-others)

54. The mind and consciousness
• Coma case (Owen et al. “Detecting awareness in the vegetative
state” Science, 313, 1402-, 2006)
• How do you know you are conscious?

55. Debener, Ullsperger, Siegel et al. JN 2005
If this is what happens in EEG-fMRI when people make errors…
…Is there some brain signal
that tells that people will
make errors in the future?

56. MRI - fMRI
Subjects are placed in a strong external magnetic field.
Spin axes of nuclei orient within the field. External RF pulse
is applied. Spin axes reorient, then relax. During
relaxation time, nuclei send out pulses, which differ
depending on the microenvironment (e.g. water/fat ratio).
The Physics (sort of) ...
fMRI – functional MRI
Allows fast acquisition of a complete image slice in as little
as 20 ms. Several slices are acquired in rapid succession
and the data is examined for statistical differences.
Hemoglobin is “brighter” than deoxyhemoglobin.
Oxygenated blood is “brighter” - active areas are “brighter”.
BOLD-fMRI

57. PET - fMRI in Comparison

58. PET and fMRI -
Similarities and Differences
- Different biological signal. Yet, both pick up a signal
related to bulk metabolism (not electricity).
- fMRI has better temporal (<100 ms) and spatial
resolution (1 mm and less)
- fMRI does not involve radioactive tracers and subjects
can be measured repeatedly, over many trials.
- PET images generally represent “idealized averages”.
fMRI images are often registered with structural
scans to show individual anatomy.
- For both, images can be aligned for multiple subjects.
- fMRI is widely available, PET is not.
- fMRI does not allow localization of neurotransmitters or
receptors etc.
- For both, it can be tricky to get stimuli to the subject.

59. Data Analysis Issues
Neuroimaging (PET/fMRI): Activation values, spatial resolution,
averaging, image alignment and registration.
EEG/MEG: Current source localization (inverse problem), time domain
data sets, frequency power spectrum, correlation and coherency.

60. 近紅外光譜儀
(Near-infrared reflectance spectroscopy, NIRS)

61. Oxygenation changes in the frontal cortices of 3 patients
using the near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS)
Buchheim et al., Neurosci. Lett., 354: 119-122, 2004.
。deoxy-Hb

62. 穿顱磁刺激
(Transcranial magnetic stimulator, TMS)

68. 穿顱直流電刺激
(transcranial direct current stimulator, tDCS)

69. 夜市攤位

70. 夜市攤位