Ib Psychology Bla

Discuss the use of technology in investigating one cognitive process-Alzheimers distemper and retrospection loss Alzheimers disease is a degenerative whiz disorder that conducts in memory loss, impaired thinking and personality change. No blood test, judgement plane, physiologic exam can definitely diagnose Alzheimers disease. PET plane receive radioactively tagged glucose that are injected into a patients trunk before the imaging.Glucose enters through blood stream and brain. The most active brain areas need sugar, while damaged and less active areas need ofttimes less. By detecting the weak radiation signal from the sugar molecules are they travel throughout the brain, PET scanners can map out the brain. victimisation PET scans, researchers can show that early stages of Alzheimers disease has a reduction in brain metamorphosis in hippocampus.Masconi(2005) have create brain-scan-based computer and found out that in the early stages of Alzheimers disease there is a re duction in brain metabolism in the hippocampus. He also found out that early signs of reduced metabolism in hippocampus was associated with later development of Alzheimer disease. Therefore, PET scan is useable in finding out the early development of Alzheimers disease. magnetic resonance imaging scan uses magnetic and radio waves to provide very clear and diminutive static 3D images of brain structure.MRI scan can show images of shrinking in the hippocampus this shrinkage reflects death of substantial numbers of brain cells. The phenomenon can be detected even before symptoms interfere with casual functions, helping patients to prepare for Alzheimers disease. Goshe et al (2000) looked at MRI result for 119 patients with varying degrees of cognitive impairment. He was 100% close when determining which patients had been diagnosed with Alzheimers disease and which had no symptoms.The study reported a 93% truth rate when researchers were asked to distinguish between patients with no symptoms and those with mild cognitive impairment, provided 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.