Читать книгу The Handy Psychology Answer Book - Lisa J. Cohen - Страница 218

Most neurobiological studies are correlational; they show that certain brain patterns can occur together with certain behaviors. For example, patients with high levels of depression show reduced activity in their frontal lobe. This tells us that there may be a relationship between some specific brain activity and a psychological condition. It does not, however, tell us much about the nature of the relationship between the two. We cannot know if the brain activity caused the psychological condition or if a third factor caused both the brain activity and the psychological condition. Nor do we know how closely related the brain activity is to the psychological condition. For example, many travelers carry books to read on their vacations, but the vacation can take place without the books and the books can be read outside of travel.