Psych Final Final

Question 1

Explain the role of one antagonist, making use of one study.

Answer 1

Theory: An Antagonist is a chemical or drug which counteracts neurotransmitters, which are chemical messengers released by neurons upon receiving and sending electrical signals that interact with various biological processes. Antagonists are able to bind to a neuron to reduce or inhibit the release of neurotransmitters, or they can interact with the neurotransmitters themselves in order to counteract them. One such antagonist is scopolamine which can inhibit the release and action level of acetylcholine, a neurotransmitter responsible for various physical functions as well as playing a role in encoding spatial memories in humans.

Aim: Antonova Aimed at how Scopolamine would affect hippocampal activity in the creation of spatial memory.
Procedure: The study took (20 Middle-aged) males and used a double-blind procedure in which the participants were randomly injected with either a placebo or scopolamine. The participants were put into an fMRI, a functional magnetic resonance imaging machine, to study their brain activity while performing a virtual reality, “Arena Task.” The goal was to locate a pole in a virtual arena, then the screen would go black and they were told to rehearse the location of the pole. They were then placed back into the arena at a different location and told to find the pole again. The participants repeated the experiment several weeks later in the opposite condition. (They trained beforehand to ensure understanding and did 6 trials.)
Results: The Scopolamine group showed a greatly reduced Hippocampus activation, however, there was no significant difference in levels of error in the task.
Conclusion: Antonova concluded that Acetylcholine could play a role in encoding spatial navigation.

Explains: This links to the prompt by explaining how the injection of scopolamine as an antagonist inhibited acetylcholine and resulted in a lower hippocampal activity rate due to less neurotransmitter interaction

Repeated Measures Design
Strength: This study is a double-blind study - which limits researcher bias due to
Strength: Repeated measures - limits participant variability and allowed both variables to be tested first and second to reduce order effects.
Limit: The sample size was small - needs repetition to confirm the reliability of the results.

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