Rogers & Kesner (2003)

https://student.thinkib.net/psychology/page/24267/rogers-kesner-2003

Aim

To determine the roel of acetylcholine in the formation of spatial memory.

Procedure

They acclimated rats to a maze then randomly allocated them to one of two conditions: injected with scopolamine or a saline solution 10 mins before running a maze. Scopolamine is an antagonist, it blocks the acetylcholine receptor sites and inhibits any response. The saline solution was a placebo. The injections were directly into the hippocampus.

Results

The scopolamine group made a higher average number of mistakes and took longer. However it didn’t seem to affect the retrieval of already created memories.

It appears acetylcholine may play an important role in the consolidation of memories.

Evaluation