study 1 Flashcards
Explain the role of inhibitory or excitatory synapses in one behavior.
(Maguire), Whats the aim of the research?
Investigate whether changes could be detected in the brains of London taxi drivers and to further investigate the functions of the hippocampus in spatial memory.
Whats the method? (🚕)
-natural experiment
-16 healthy, right-handed male London taxi drivers
-taxi drivers’ MRI brain scans were compared with the scans of 50 healthy right-handed males who did not drive taxis.
The result? (talk about back and front part of hippocampi)
-the back parts of the taxi drivers’ hippocampi were significantly larger than those of the control subjects
-the front hippocampal region was larger in control subjects than in taxi drivers.
-the hippocampal volume of the right hippocampus in each taxi driver correlated with the amount of time spent as a taxi driver-the back part of the right hippocampus grew larger and the front part shrank. The larger posterior hippocampi made the taxi drivers more proficient at spatial memory and navigation.
Explain the role of inhibitory or excitatory synapses in one behavior.
(Dragansky), Whats the aim of the research?
TIP–> skill
to see whether learning a new skill would affect the brain of the participants
Now identify the method:
Key words:
volunteers, MRI scans, grey matter, brain structure, conditions (jugglers vs. non-jugglers), juggling routine, practice, mastery, three scans (baseline, post-learning, follow-up).
-24 volunteers between the ages of 20 and 24. 21 females and 3 males. They were all non-jugglers at the start.
-each of them had an MRI scan at the start of the study as a base rate of grey matter and brain structure
-participants were allocated to one of two conditions(jugglers and the non-jugglers)
-those who were in the juggling condition were taught a three-ball cascade juggling routine and asked to practice this routine and to notify the researchers when they had mastered it. At that point, the jugglers had a second MRI scan. After the scan, they were told not to juggle anymore and then a third and final scan was carried out three months later.
Result??
key word:
before the study…
After the first part of the study…
Three month after…
In conclusion …
Before the study began, the researchers employed VBM on MRI scans to compare grey matter in the brains of jugglers and non-jugglers. They found no significant differences in grey matter between the two groups.
After the first part of the study, jugglers exhibited a notably larger amount of grey matter in the mid-temporal area associated with visual memory. This suggests that juggling might have induced neuroplastic changes related to visual memory.
Three months after they stopped juggling, when many could no longer perform the routine, the grey matter in these brain regions decreased. This indicates that the changes induced by juggling might not be permanent and may revert once the juggling activity ceased.
In conclusion, the findings suggest that juggling relies more on visual memory than on procedural memory. This is indicated by the observed changes in grey matter in the mid-temporal area rather than the cerebellum or basal ganglia, which are typically associated with procedural memory tasks.
Study 4, Troster and betty, Whats the aim of the research?
TiP–> Acetylcholine
to determine the role of acetylcholine in the formation and retrieval of memory.
Whats the method?
-Number of sample
-tested
-side effect
-The sample was made up of 13 men aged 31 to 59.
-All participants were tested for physical and mental health before undergoing the procedure. -Participants were briefed on the potential side effects of scopolamine (dry mouth, forgetfulness, sedation, and hallucinations) and were reminded throughout that they had the right to withdraw from the study.
-There was a placebo group in which they were injected with a saline solution. Then there was an injection of either 0.5 mg or 0.8 mg of scopolamine. There was a 48-hour pause between each condition and the conditions were counter-balanced. Although a placebo was given, the participants and the researcher immediately knew if it was the saline solution as there were no side effects.
-one of the tests was the Remote Memory Battery: The participants were shown 150 images of famous faces and events to see if they could recognize them. Unlike the other tasks, this is based on LTM retrieval, not the transfer of memory from STM to LTM.
Whats the result?
The findings showed that scopolamine inhibited the encoding of new memories, but did not have a significant effect on the recall of long-term memories.
