Compared to functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), electroencephalography (EEG) has the advantage that...

Question

BlackTom AI · Accepted Answer

To compare EEG and fMRI, we must evaluate what each modality truly offers. 
Option 1: '... it can answer questions about causality.' EEG measures electrical activity on the scalp with high temporal precision, but establishing causality is a philosophical and methodological challenge that EEG alone cannot resolve; it mainly shows correlation between neural activity patterns and events, not direct causal relationships. 
Option 2: '... none of the options.' This is the statement we must test against the others; we will see whether any of the listed claims are valid advantages of EEG relative to fMRI. 
Option 3: '... it can show neurons' firing directly.' Raw EEG signals do not record action potentials (neuronal spikes) directly. EEG reflects summed post-synaptic potentials and reflects population activity with limited spatial specificity, not single-neuron firing. Therefore this claim is incorrect. 
Option 4: '... it has a better spatial resolution.' A core difference is that EEG has excellent temporal resolution but relatively poor spatial resolution due to the inverse problem and skull/soft-tissue blurring. fMRI, while temporally coarser, provides much better spatial localization of brain activity. Thus this option is incorrect. 
Taken together, none of the listed options accurately describes an advantage of EEG over fMRI. The true contrasts are that EEG offers superior temporal resolution and millisecond precision, while fMRI provides better spatial localization of brain activity, not the capabilities asserted in the options.

PSYC20006_2025_SM1 Assessed Quiz #3 - Jacob's section (Neuroimaging)

Compared to functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), electroencephalography (EEG) has the advantage that...

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