The topic of discussion for this week is research methods. Eric made a special point to emphasize the three different types of research methods in neuroscience so I am sure that will be on the exam at the end of the week. Those three areas are anatomical research, chemical research, and physiological research. All three are important and must be used together to find accurate information. All three provide different perspectives on the same neurological phenomena and taking one perspective as true over the others will not give you an accurate understanding of what is actually happening.
If we are looking at the brain and want to know what is connecting to what we can use chemicals to reveal the anatomy. Injecting a drug called PHA-L into a region of the brain allows dendrites and cell bodies in that area to absorb it from the extracellular fluid. The PHA-L is then taken down the axons to the terminal buttons via axoplasmic flow. Now when we find the PHA-L we will know where the cells in the area we are interested in connect to.
We also talked about other research methods like testing pain physiology in rats with tail flick tests, hot plate tests, and using formalin injections which create painful inflammatory responses. We talked about lessions in the brain and how purposefully doing that to rats can show us how the brain works. However, it is important to know how the lession was made because different lessions effect different structures in the brain. Microdialysis is another research method discussed in class that uses a semipermeable membrane on the end of a cannula that is used to extract the fluid from between cells. This can give us information about the neurotransmitters being sent and received in that area. Autoradiography, like x-rays, can give us pictures of the brain as another research method.
Behavioral Neuroscience at Macalester 