Maguire Flashcards
What type of experiment is this
Qusai experiment
What was IV
wetjer a ppt was a taxi driver (i.e used spatail memory in his job) or not
What was the desgin of this experiment
Matched ppts desgin
DV
Volume of each hippocompaus measured in 6 areas : right and left and anterioir body and posterior huppocampi
What did the expeirmental group consist of
16 right handed male taxis who have passed the knowledge
What was the mean age of the taxi drivers
44 yrs
What was the mean age of driving experince
14.3 yrs
How was the experimental group matched with the control group
(men who did not drive taxis)
matched on age, age range, gender and handeness
What does VBM stand for
Voxel based morphometry
How does VBM work
measures the volumne of specific brain areas by comparing each brain area to a tempalte
(template was constructed using the MRI scans of 50 healthy male brains and working out an average of all the brains scanned)
What does VBM identify
diffrences in the density of the grey matter in a persons brain
Pixel counting
MRI scans were made of the brain by cutting 26 slcies that were 1.5 thick
Each slive lay next to the previous one and included all areas of the hippocampi (each slive produced a 2d pic
What was the person doing the couting desribed as
“blind” they didnty know ehether a ppts was a taxi driver and also “blind” to the vbm
What did the VBM show?
SIGNIFICANTLY more grey matter in both left and right hippcampi of taxi drivers compared to the control
(this difference was only in the posterir potion of both RH and LH)
Results from pixel counting
The body ;H and RH had greater volume in the taxi drivers than the controls but this was not a significant diffrence
The anterior LH and RH had greater volume in the controls than in the taxi drivers
The posterior LH and RH had gretaer volume in the Taxi drivers than in the controls
Where was the postive correlations
Time spent taxi driving and volume of posterior RH
Neagtive correlation
Between time and the volume of the anterior RH and LH
What were the conclusions
relationship between the hippocampus and the navigational skills
The diffrence between the experimetnal group and contril groups suggest the brain does change in response to experince (envionrmental demands) + brain plasticity
correlation with expereince in taxi drivers confirms the role of nurtyre in the devloplent of the biological system
What was the aim of Maguire et al’s study?
To investigate whether changes (plasticity) could be detected in the brains of London taxi drivers and to further investigate the functions of the hippocampus in spatial memory.
Outline the sample used in Maguire et al’s study.
16 healthy, right handed male licensed taxi drivers
- Mean age 44 (range 32-62 years)
- All participants licensed London taxi drivers for more than one and a half years and had completed the knowledge course
- Control group of 16 non-taxi drivers, matched on age range of taxi drivers
Name a limitation of the sample
Sample does not include women or left-handed people
Outline the procedure of the study
MRI scans were performed (by measuring soft tissue by exposing the brain to a strong magnetic field and radio waves to produce detailed pictures of the brain).
