Event-related functional imaging and episodic memory.
Electrical and haemodynamic measures of neural activity can be time-locked to an event-of-interest, such as the presentation of a stimulus or a behavioural response. Both of these measures can be employed in studies where the aim is to elucidate the relationship between neural activity and cognitive processes. This review highlights a number of considerations that arise when these techniques are employed in pursuit of this goal, with a particular emphasis on functional imaging studies of retrieval from episodic memory. The review includes: a discussion of some limitations that each technique imposes at the stage of experimental design, consideration of the relative strengths and weaknesses of each technique, a commentary on assumptions that are common to both, and a brief review of the ways in which these techniques can be extended in order to index two distinct classes of cognitive operations that have correspondingly distinct neural signatures.
Wilding
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School of Psychology, Cardiff University, Cardiff CF10 3YG, UK. wildinge@cf.ac.uk
D001921:Brain / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000502:physiology*; D005071:Evoked Potentials / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008568:Memory / Q000502:physiology*; D014055:Tomography, Emission-Computed