Neuroplasticity study: Case of Draganski

Question 1

What was the aim of this study?

Answer 1

To see whether learning was a new skill

Question 2

What was the procedure of this study?

Answer 2

• 24 volunteers (aged 20-24)
• 21 females 3 males
• All participants were not jugglers
• Each participant had an MRI scan at the start of the study as a base rate for grey matter and brain structure
• 2 conditions:
  1) Jugglers: taught 3 ball cascade routines and had to practice until they had mastered it - they had to tell the researcher and had a second MRI
  2) Non Jugglers: acted as a control group in this experiment
• MRIs determined if there was significant differences in neural density between jugglers and non-jugglers

Question 3

What were the findings of this study?

Answer 3

• Jugglers showed that they had a larger amount of grey matter in the mid-temporal area in both hemispheres which is an area associated with visual memory
• There was no change throughout the study in the non-juggling sample

Question 4

What were the conclusions from this study?

Answer 4

• Juggling relies on visual memory (that is the perception and spatial anticipation of moving objects - than on procedural memory which would most likely show a change in the cerebellum or basal ganglia)