Tools & Methods
How we actually study the brain: EEG, MRI, PET, brain stimulation, electrodes, optogenetics, microscopy, model organisms and connectomics.
11 articles
Tools & Methods
Intermediate
Brain Stimulation: TMS, tDCS and ECT
Changing brain activity from outside the skull: transcranial magnetic stimulation for research and depression, weak electrical currents (tDCS) and their hype, and the history and modern reality of electroconvulsive therapy.
August 10, 2026 · 3 min read
Tools & Methods
Intermediate
EEG and MEG
Recording the brain's electrical rhythms through the scalp, from Hans Berger's alpha waves in the 1920s to event-related potentials, sleep studies, epilepsy diagnosis and wearable magnetoencephalography.
August 6, 2026 · 3 min read
Tools & Methods
Intermediate
Microscopy, Staining and Tissue Clearing
From Nissl and Golgi stains to electron microscopy, confocal and two-photon imaging, rainbow-coloured Brainbow mice, see-through brains with CLARITY, and expansion microscopy that physically enlarges tissue.
July 30, 2026 · 2 min read
Tools & Methods
Advanced
Recording Single Neurons and the Patch Clamp
From Adrian's single nerve fibres to microelectrodes in behaving animals, the patch clamp that captured single ion channels, Neuropixels probes recording thousands of cells, and calcium imaging with glowing proteins.
July 20, 2026 · 2 min read
Tools & Methods
Beginner
Lesion Studies: Learning from Brain Damage
How studying people with brain injuries — Leborgne, Gage, H.M. and thousands since — revealed what brain regions do, the logic of double dissociation, modern lesion-mapping, and the method's pitfalls.
July 5, 2026 · 3 min read
Tools & Methods
Intermediate
MRI and fMRI
How magnets, radio waves and hydrogen atoms produce detailed brain images; how functional MRI tracks activity through blood oxygen; diffusion imaging of white matter; and the famous dead salmon that taught a statistical lesson.
June 20, 2026 · 3 min read
Tools & Methods
Beginner
How We Study the Brain: An Overview of Methods
From patients and post-mortem slices to scanners, electrodes, light-controlled neurons and supercomputers: the toolkit of neuroscience and the trade-offs between seeing where, seeing when and seeing causes.
May 21, 2026 · 3 min read
Tools & Methods
Advanced
Optogenetics: Controlling Neurons with Light
Borrowing light-sensitive proteins from algae to switch specific neurons on and off in milliseconds: how optogenetics works, what it has revealed, chemogenetics, and its first steps toward human therapy.
March 11, 2026 · 2 min read
Tools & Methods
Intermediate
PET and SPECT
Imaging the brain's chemistry with radioactive tracers: glucose metabolism, dopamine and serotonin systems, amyloid and tau in Alzheimer's disease, and the trade-offs of nuclear imaging.
December 27, 2025 · 2 min read
Tools & Methods
Intermediate
Animal Models in Neuroscience
Why neuroscience studies worms, flies, fish, mice, rats, songbirds and monkeys; what each species offers; the limits of translating animal findings to humans; brain organoids; and the ethics of the 3Rs.
December 8, 2025 · 3 min read
Tools & Methods
Advanced
Connectomics: Mapping Every Connection
From the 302-neuron worm in 1986 to a complete fruit-fly brain in 2024, a cubic millimetre of human cortex and mouse visual cortex in 2025: how scientists map neural wiring synapse by synapse, and what the maps reveal.
November 13, 2025 · 3 min read