explain neurotransmitters on behaviour

Question 1

intro of neurotransmitters

Answer 1

• Neurotransmission is the process where neurons communicate with other neurons.
• This is done when the presynaptic neuron releases chemicals called neurotransmitters to cross the gap between two neurons called the synapse.
• These neurotransmitters then bind to specific receptor sites on the postsynaptic neuron creating an electrical signal called the action potential.
• If these receptor sites are blocked by another chemical the postsynaptic neuron will not be able to create an action potential, inhibiting the process of neurotransmission.
• This is a common way of studying the effects of neurotransmission, blocking the receptor sites of a specific neurotransmitter and then noting behavioral changes.

Question 2

introduction of study

Answer 2

• In some patients with memory problems, we see a lower rate of activity in the hippocampus. This could be because of a lack of a neurotransmitter called acetylcholine.
• As it is not possible to directly observe the activity of neurotransmission in the brain, and it would be unethical to manipulate levels of acetylcholine in a patient, animal research is used with the hope of better understanding human behavior.

Question 3

description of study

Answer 3

• Rogers & Kesner (2003) conducted a laboratory experiment to investigate the role of Acetylcholine in memory. - - Rats were trained to navigate a maze and were then randomly assigned to one of two groups: one received an injection of scopolamine, an Acetylcholine antagonist, while the control group received a saline injection to rule out the effects of injection stress.
• The number of errors each rat made while completing the maze was recorded across four trials over two days.

Question 4

results of study

Answer 4

The researchers found that the group injected with scopolamine performed significantly worse on the maze, taking longer to learn it and making more mistakes.

Question 5

link between study and behaviour

Answer 5

• The researchers found that the group injected with scopolamine performed significantly worse on the maze, taking longer to learn it and making more mistakes.
  suggesting that blocking
• Acetylcholine impaired memory encoding. However, their performance improved on Day 2, indicating that Acetylcholine plays a larger role in encoding new spatial memories rather than retrieving pre-existing ones.
• This research supports the role of neurotransmitters in learning and memory,
• This clearly links the presence of acetylcholine to the behavior of memory formation, as its inhibition led to worse performance during encoding.