Maguire

AIMS: 

• to show that the hippocampus has plasticity
• show that the hippocampus volume changes depending on level of navigational skill

METHOD:

• Quasi experiment
• IV - taxi driver/non taxi driver
• DV - hippocamus volume

PARTICIPANTS:

• Taxi drivers: 16 males, licenced for more than 18 months, london, aged 32-64, all right handed, clincally normal and had passed 'the knowledge'
• non taxi drivers: 50, all male, right handed, 32-64, routine MRI scans taken from database (not in person)

PROCEDURE:

• All 16 taxi drivers were given an MRI scan
• comparissons were made to their matches in other condition (some had 3/4)
• Measured VBM (voxel based morphometry) - 3D measurement of the volume of grey matter
• Pixel counting - 2D measurement,  26 slices of scan - density of grey matter around hippocampus (1 before, 6 on posterior HC, 12 on HC body, 6 on anterior HC, 1 after)
• VALID BECAUSE DONE BY 1 EXPERIENCED SCAN OPERATOR
• operator was condition blind, 

RESULTS:

• Taxi drivers had increase in volume of grey matter in left/right posterior hippocampus
• Taxi drivers had decrease in volume of…