Makeba Fitzgerald

Psychology 256

September 13, 2015

Measuring of the Brain

When measuring the brain one must find different techniques to measure the brain without causing any type of harm to the brain. The use of electroencephalography will help a doctor “measure the electrical activity across the scalp” (Unknown, 2015).

One evening a doctor was notified that a child was suffering from an irregular heart beat and was not sleeping at night. It was believed that this child was not breathing during periods of sleep at night. Therefore the doctor ordered what is known as a sleep study.

The child arrived to the hospital for an overnight stay to have an electroencephalography completed. The nurse came into the room and explained to the child that he would be positioning several leads onto his head and then hooking wired to these leads which would record to a computer about his patterns of sleep and wake periods as well as his breathing.

The nurse then informed the child that he would be turning the lights and television off at 9pm. Once the lights and television were turned off the nurse turned on the machine so that it could record the time that the child went to sleep and any periods that the child may have awaken during the night. The child was monitored for about eight hours or so. Once the test was concluded the doctor went over the results and then reported his finding to the parents.

In conclusion the doctor reported that the child had been awake about nine or ten times throughout an eight hour period and had stopped breathing in his sleep about two to three times. There were no real concerns about the child health as the results just showed how the electrical waves in the child brain were seen through the recording throughout the night. The child was released from the hospital and told to follow up with his pulmonary doctor.

References

Unknown. (2015, September 13). cms.psu.edu. Retrieved September 13, 2015, from Angel: www.cms.psu.edu