Maguire Flashcards
key theme + area
key theme =
area = biological
background
One role of hippocampus is to aid spatial memory in the form navigation.
Hippocampal volume increases in some species during seasons where demand for spatial ability is greatest.
Taxi drivers must pass exams created by the police to be awarded their Taxi Licence. The test is called ‘The Knowledge’. Requires good spatial memory
spatial memory
- ability to remember locations in space + navigate between them
aim
- To investigate Brain differences in the hippocampus of London Taxi Drivers
- Investigate the function of the hippocampus in spatial memory
method + design
- Independent measures - Taxi driver or not
- Correlational element to it - Length of time being a taxi driver and Hippocampal volume
- Quasi experiment - participants already belonged to existing groups ‘taxi drivers’ and ‘controls’.
taxi group sample sample
- 16 right-handed male taxi drivers
- Mean age of 44 years (32-64 years)
- Taxi driving experience varied from 1.5-42 years (mean 14.3 years)
- Their training (time on the ‘Knowledge) took an average of 2 years
- All healthy
control group sample
- 50 right handed males
- Aged 32-62
- Matched based on MRI database at UCL cognitive neurology department
exclusion criteria’s for sample
- Females
- left-handed people
- people under 32 or over 62
- people with health issues
procedure
- MRI scans used to assess structure of Taxi drivers brains
- These MRI scans were then compared with the control groups
how brain differences were measured
- Voxel-based morphometry (VBM) - used to calculate the volume of grey matter in different regions of the brain.
- Pixel counting was used to compare 16 taxi drivers with the 16 controls from the 50. Brain was sliced into 26 images- 24 focused on Hippocampus
pixel counting (slices for each part)
- 6 posterior (Back) slices
- 12 body slices
- 6 anterior (front) slices
VBM results
- Right and left Hippocampi the ONLY area with more grey matter compared to controls
- Increase in posterior hippocampi
- Decrease in anterior hippocampi
pixel counting results
- No difference in overall hippocampal volume compared to controls
- Posterior- Taxi drivers had higher volume compared to controls
- Body- No difference
- Anterior – Controls had higher volume in right hemisphere than the left
correlation results
- Positive correlation between time and hippocampal volume in right posterior hippocampus
- Negative correlation between time and hippocampal volume in right anterior hippocampus
conclusions
- are regional structural differences between taxi + non taxi drivers - happen over time + therefore suggest environment contributed to it
- findings indicate that anterior + posterior hippo have different roles in spatial memory
- anterior = learning about new environment
- posterior = previously learnt info (larger in taxi drivers)
- left side of hippo = mental maps
- right side = memories + events
similarities between Blakemore + cooper + Maguire
- Lab
- Objective – MRI scans/measurements of visual neurons
- Quantitative data
- Both show neuroplasticity
differences between Blakemore + cooper + Maguire
- Sample- Humans vs kittens
- B&C longitudinal- Maguire snapshot
- Area of brain investigated different- Visual neurones vs hippocampus.
how Maguire changes understanding of key theme
- Confirms that brain plasticity can occurs in humans, not just kittens.
- Confirms that brain plasticity can occur in various brain areas, not just visual neurons.
how Maguire changes individual, cultural + genetic diversity
- Cant be compared as previous study was on Kittens
- However, MRI’s do allow to investigate individual diversity in the brain- Hippocampus in this study.
