Maguire

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  • 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
    • 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
    • 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
    • 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

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