Child Psychology and Psychiatry

Cortical structures: prefrontal
cortex and cerebellum
The prefrontal cortex (PFC) plays a major role
in the control of many aspects of behaviour,
regulating cognitive and emotional processes
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The neuroscience and genetics of childhood maltreatment
Disadvantages
Advantages
How it works
Imaging modality
• Difficult to conduct group
comparisons
• High cost
• Only an indirect measure of the
structural integrity of white
matter
• Non-invasive
• High spatial resolution
Provides information about the
structural integrity of axonal
white matter by measuring the
molecular diffusion of water in
brain tissue
DTI
• Poor temporal resolution
• Analyses are complex and time
consuming
• Very susceptible to movement
• Many contraindications
• High cost
• Indirect measure of brain
functioning
• Non-invasive and no radiation
• High spatial resolution
Detects the changes in blood
oxygenation and flow that
occur in responses to neural
activity
fMRI
• Poor spatial resolution
• Limited to surface (cortical)
activity
• Non-invasive
• High temporal resolution
• Low cost
• Easy to use with children to
study early brain functioning
Records the brain’s electrical
activity and yields detailed
information about the temporal
sequence (resolution in
milliseconds) of cognitive
operations throughout the brain