Ib Psychology Bla

Discuss the use of technology in investigating one cognitive process-Alzheimers disease and memory loss Alzheimers disease is a degenerative straits affection that results in memory loss, impaired thinking and personality change. No blood test, principal cream, physical scrutiny can definitely diagnose Alzheimers disease. PET scan detect radioactively tagged glucose that are injected into a patients body before the imaging.Glucose enters through blood stream and brain. The most active brain areas need sugar, while damaged and less active areas need much less. By detecting the vulnerable radiation signal from the sugar molecules are they travel through surface the brain, PET scanners can map out the brain. Using PET scans, researchers can show that ahead of time stages of Alzheimers disease has a reduction in brain metabolism in hippocampus.Masconi(2005) have developed brain-scan-based computer and found out that in the early stages of Alzheimers disease there is a reduction in brain metabolism in the hippocampus. He also found out that early signs of reduced metabolism in hippocampus was associated with later phylogeny of Alzheimer disease. Therefore, PET scan is useful in finding out the early development of Alzheimers disease. magnetic resonance imaging scan uses magnetic and radio waves to provide very illume and detailed static 3D images of brain structure.magnetic resonance imaging scan can show images of shrinkage in the hippocampus this shrinkage reflects death of substantial be of brain cells. The phenomenon can be detected even before symptoms interfere with daily functions, helping patients to break for Alzheimers disease. Goshe et al (2000) looked at MRI result for 119 patients with varying degrees of cognitive impairment. He was 100% blameless when determining which patients had been diagnosed with Alzheimers disease and which had no symptoms.The study reported a 93% accuracy prescribe when researchers were asked to distinguish between p atients with no symptoms and those with mild cognitive impairment, but not yet diagnosed with Alzheimers disease. This shows that MRI scan is very accurate in determining whether the patient has Alzheimer symptoms. According to above examples, PET scan finds out early development of Alzheimers disease, while MRI scan determine whether the patient shows symptoms. It is clear that Alzheimers disease can be investigated through PET scan and MRI scan.