Draganski et al. (2004)

Neuroplasticity, neural networks, neural pruning

Aim

The aim was to see whether learning a new skill would have an effect on the brains of the participants

Participants

24 volunteers, 21 being female and 3 being male. All participants were between 20-24 and were all non-jugglers at the start of the study. An MRI scan was conducted before the start of the experiment to serve as a control

Procedure

Participants were divided into two groups: jugglers and non-jugglers. The juggling group were taught a juggling routine and they were asked to practice it until they mastered it. Once they had mastered it, they had a second MRI scan. Then, they were told to not juggle anymore and a final scan was taken three months later.

Results

Voxel-based morphometry was used to see any significant differences in neural density in the brains of the jugglers and non-jugglers. The MRI scans before the study showed no signifficant differences, however after the second test, the jugglers showed a larger amount of grey matter in the mid-temporal area (visual memory). The final test demonstrated that the gray matter in the mid-temporal area decreased. There was no change in the scans of the non-juggling group.