SAQs studies outline

Maguire et al outline (2010)

A study that used MRIs to study the neuroplasticity and localization of the brain was conducted by Maguireet al (2010). Maguire conducted MRIs scans on right hand London taxi drivers that had been driving for at least 1.5 years and compared those MRIs with London right hand male non-taxi drivers. She found out that taxi drivers had a larger posterior hyppocampi than non-taxi drivers, supporting localization of the brain as only certain partys of the brain were affected by the being a taxi driver. Indeed it is believed that the posterior hippocampi had a role in spatial memory. Moreover, she found a positive correlation with grey matter in the brain and the years the drivers had worked.

 

HM outline

Aim: study the role of the HIPPOCAMPUS in memory consolidation , different parts of the brain.

Procedure:

Hm had a bike incident when he was a kid and few years after started to suffer of epiletic seizures. Thus, doctors removed the temporal lobe, severely damaging the HIPPOCAMPUS , believed to have a key role in the formation of memory. Aftyer the operation, HM sturted suffering of abnterograde amnesia ( couldn't create any new memories) and partially retrograde amnesia.

+ techniques used ( es. observations/ IQ testing/ interviews)

Findings: as the HIPPOCAMPUS was severely damaged, this study supports the theory that it plays a key role in the tranferment of in episodic and semantic

memories from ST to LT.

Antonova et al(2011) outline (!)

Aim: test effect of acetylcholine (neurotransmitter) on human behaviour, more specifically in encoding spatial memories

Procedure: sample made by males, double blind study, participants were either injected with placebo or scopolamine (acetylcholine antagonist) 

Asked to play a virtual reality game in which they had to remember how to get in a certain place and find a pole.

After, they were put in a new starting point and asked to find the pole again.

fMRIs while carrying the task were done=> could see the brain activity.

Findings: participants that were injected with scopolamine took longer to find the pole again than the group that took the placebo.

More activity in the hippocampus in the experimental participants than the one in the placebo group.

Setiawan et al (2013) outline (!)

Aim: study the role of alchool in the brain's reward system (nucleus accumbens)  / origin of alcholism

Procedue: sample made of 26 healthy social drinkers, categorized them based on their risk of alcoholism based on their personality, intoxication response to alchool ( feel drunk)

Each participant did a pet scan after drinking a juice/ after alcohol (3 drinks in 15 minutes)

Findings:  who was high risk shoed greater activity in the brain reward system ( nucleus accumbens)

Alcholo is an agonist for dopamine, connecting to dopamine rexeptors causing neurons to fire.

Low level of dopamine after drinking=> higher risk of alcolism.

By studying alcohol as a agonist on dopamnine neuros, Researchers may treat this disorders,

 

Rasmusson and Dadar (1979) outline

 A study that used scopolamine to study the role of acetylcholine in the formation of memories is rasmusson and dadar (1979). Partcipants were asked to eirther learns a sequence of number or to solve a maze. The participants in the control condition freceived a placebo tablet, while the other participants received a scopolamine tabet. Verbal declarative memory eas tested in the partcipants meorising the number series, while spatial memory was tested in the participants solving the maze.

It was found that there was no significant difference between the participants in the control and experiment codition in memorizing the number sequence. Instead, participants who received the scopolamine tablet and had to solve the maze task, did more poorly than the participants in the control condition.

Mc Gauth & Cahill(1995) outline

Aim: to see the effect of adrenaline in creation of emotional memories

Procedure: a group of participants heard a boring story aboout a boy going to the hospital. The partecipants in the second condition  heard  an emotional arousing story, about a boywho had an accident and the doctors later had to sever his feet. In a later study, another gorup of partecipants received a betablocker for adrenaline while hearing the emotional arousing story, which inhibited adrenaline to arrive to the amygdala, where it is believd memories are formed. After two weeks the partecipants had to recall the story

It was found that there was a significant differece in the number of details the partecipants remembered in the emotional arousing condition and in the boring condition. However, partecipants who received the beta blocker for adrenaline remembered as much as the participants who heard the boring story.

Draganski et al outline

A study that investigated neural pruning is Draganski. The sample consisted of 24 non jugglers. The partcipants were randomly allocated in one of these twp groups. The first one had to learned a juggle skill and continued practise it until they mastered it. Then they were asked not to practise the juggle skill for 3 months. The other group served as a control. MRIs were done to the partecipants brain at the beginning, after having learned the skill and after the 3 months.

The researcher found out that there was much more grey matter in the mid temporal area  in the two hemispheres in the partecipants in the jugglers condition right after they had llearned the skill, but when they had forgot the skill after 3 months, the amount of grey matter was the same and neural pruning had occured.

Zhou et al (2014) outline

. A study that wanted to investigate the role of AND (androstadione) in human mating behaviour is AND. The sample was made of heterosexual males and females, gay men and lesbians.

 

In the control condition they had to what a stick walking and determine its sex while being exposed to the smell of cloves. Instead, partecipant in the experimental condition were exposed to AND  as well as cloves. The results showed that the heterosexual females and gay men, when exposed to AND perceived the sticks more masculine.

Caspi et al (2003) outline

Aim: Caspi wanted to study if the mutation of this gene would have an affect on the development of this disorder.

 (short allele is the mutation!!)

800 26 y.o new zealand participants

Correlational study

Group 1: 2 short alleles

Group 2: 1 short/ 1 long allele

Group 3: 2 long alleles

Participants filled out a survey about stressful events and doiagnosed for depression

 

Findings: participants with one / 2 short alleles were more likely to develop depression answering 3 major stressful life events 

Inheriting the gene was not enough, environemental factors hgad to play a role too.

The mutation of this allele may be linked to depression

 

Kendler et al (2006) outline

One study that investigated genetic similarities in the behaviour of major depressive disorder (MDD) is Kendler et al. (2006).

The sample was made of 15, 000 swedish twin pairs and researchers carried out telephone interviews and assesed participants for depression using DSM criteria. The researchers then calculated the concordance rates for MZ and DZ twins to determine whether genetic similarity influenced the likelihood of developing depression.

 

The results showed that monozygotic twins had higher concordance rates for depression than dizygotic twins. Indeed, the concordance rate was about 44% for female MZ twins and 31% for male MZ twins, compared to 16% for female DZ twins and 11% for male DZ twins.