Rogers and Kesner (2003)

Methodology

30 rats were used

Aim/ Hypothesis

To determine the role of acetylcholine in formation of spatial memory formation/retival, H: Scopolamine will form less spatial memory

Procedure

30 rats acclimate to a Hebb-Williams Maze by placing food in corners and let them familiarize with the maze until no longer scared to begin. Rats allocated to one of two conditions, injected with scopolamine or saline 10 min before running maze. scopolamine block receptor. Injections were made into hippocampus. Encoding of memory was assessed by average number of errors on first five trials to last five trials (day 1). Average errors made on first five trials of day 2 compared to last five trials of day 1 (retrieval)

Results

Scopolamine group took longer and made more mistakes in learning maze, more mistakes on last five of day 1. It didn't affect retrieval of memories. Acetylcholine plays an important role in consolidation of spatial memories.

Conclusion

Acytylchonie is critical for encoding and formation of new spatial memories in hippocampus but not for retrieval. blocking ACh with scopolamine impairs learning.

Evaluation

Experiment allows for cause-and-effect there are several types of memory and process of memory consolidation is complex. Generalizability to human is questionable.

Ethics

Consent and Debriefing weren’t necessary but the effects of Scopolamine and saline do wear off but the effect of the damage done to the rats is unknown. They didn’t die during the experiment.