You have just joined a psychology lab and are working with a group of researchers who are interested in how the brain responds to different kinds of facial expressions (e.g. happy, scared, angry, etc,.). They ask you if you have any ideas for experiments. You tell them that you wonder if the response of the fusiform face area (FFA), an area known to be involved in facial processing, might differ with the emotion being conveyed by a face. If you hypothesize that FFA activity will vary across the presentation of different kinds of facial expressions, what method would be appropriate to test that hypothesis?
A)A functional MRI (fMRI)
B)ERP (event-related potentials)
C)None of these method would be appropriate to test that hypothesis.
D)transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS)
E)a computerized axial tomography (CT) scan

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

A functional MRI (fMRI) is the appropriate method to test the hypothesis because it allows researchers to observe brain activity, including in the fusiform face area (FFA), in response to different stimuli, such as facial expressions, by measuring changes in blood flow associated with neural activity.

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