Illustrate the techniques of neurology
A long-standing technique in neurology has been observed the effects on behaviour of lesions (cutting) or ablation (removal) of nerve tissue. Karl Lashley used brain lesions and worked exclusively with animals. Many of his studies measured the effects of lesions (removal of brain tissue) in maze learning in rodents. Initially, there would be a period of orientation during which time an animal learned its way around a maze to locate a food pellet. Then he would remove a small region of cortex, and, following a period of recovery, see how many trials it took the animal to relearn the maze and find the food pellet. On the basis of many such trials, Lashley concluded that the amount of lesioned brain tissue rather than its location best predicted how long it would take the rat to learn the maze, supporting his idea of mass action (that the entire cortex is involved in all functions