Maguire
- Created by: emma
- Created on: 24-03-14 22:55
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- Maguire
- Aim
- Find out whether changes in the brain could be detected in people with extensive navigation experience
- Based on research that the role of hippocampus facilitates spatial memory
- Hippocampi in London taxi drivers will be structurally different to hippocampi in non taxi drivers
- Find out whether changes in the brain could be detected in people with extensive navigation experience
- Participants
- 16 male licensed taxi drivers who had passed the knowledge test
- Right handed
- Aged between 32 and 62
- Licensed for at least 18 months (range 18month- 42 years) mean 14.3
- Average time spent training before Knowledge test was 2 years
- Control group of 50 right handed non taxi drivers as comparison
- 16 were matched with taxi drivers on age and right handedness
- 16 male licensed taxi drivers who had passed the knowledge test
- Method
- Quasi experiment
- Procedure
- MRI scans of 50 non taxi drivers analysed to establish average hippocampi volume
- MRI is a medical imaging technique used to visualise the structure of the body
- Voxel based Morphometry
- every point of brain can be examined in an objective and unbiased way
- Identifies differences in density of grey matter in different parts of the brain
- Pixel counting
- pixel is a single part on a graphic image
- Pixels were counted in images produced by the MRI scans
- Each scan was a photographic slice made through the hippocampi region
- At least 26 continuous (on final analysis 24 slices were used)
- All pixels in each slice were added up and multiplied by distance between adjacent slices
- Correlation made in relation to the total intracranial volume to account for some people having bigger brains than others
- Each scan was a photographic slice made through the hippocampi region
- Pixels were counted in images produced by the MRI scans
- pixel is a single part on a graphic image
- Voxel based Morphometry
- Results
- Increased volume of grey matter in right and left hippocmampi in taxi drivers (no other differences found
- Volume of right hippocampus showed positive relationship with lenght of time a taxi driver
- Negative correlation between volume of anterior hippocammpus and length of time spent as a taxi driver
- Taxi drivers had a greater volume of grey matter in posterior hippocampi but non taxi had a greatervolume of grey matter in anterior hippocampi
- Redistribution of grey matter
- Conclusion
- Differences between hippocampi of taxi drivers and non taxi drivers
- More experienced taxi drivers had larger volume of posterior hippocampi
- Structure of brain changes in respone to enviroment demands
- Aim
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