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3.2 - Perturbing Brain Function

from 3 - Basic Techniques in Neuroscience

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 November 2023

Mary-Ellen Lynall
Affiliation:
University of Cambridge
Peter B. Jones
Affiliation:
University of Cambridge
Stephen M. Stahl
Affiliation:
University of California, San Diego
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Summary

When scientific studies are observational, based purely on measurement – however sophisticated – the possibility will remain that correlations between two things of interest do not reflect a direct causal connection. For example: suppose you find that a subject’s self-report of auditory hallucinations is associated with increased BOLD signal in brain region X. This doesn’t prove that there’s an abnormality of X (the abnormality might be in region Y, which influences X) or even that activity in X reflects the hallucination itself (perhaps it relates to an emotional response to the hallucination, or to the motor activity required to report it). A true experiment involves manipulating one or more independent variables, with appropriate control conditions, and examining the effects.

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Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2023

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