BATB
, RESEARCH METHOD
Explain the use of one research method in one study of the brain and behavior.
Lab Experiment
• Establishes cause-effect relationships
• Allows researchers to manipulate an independent variable and measure its effect on
dependent variable
• Other variables are keep constant to eliminate as many other factors that could
potentially influence the behavior.
• Participants are often randomly allocated to conditions
• Placebo is often used as a control condition → prevents demand characteristics.
Maguire et al. (2000)
Aim
To investigate whether changes could be detected in the brains of London taxi drivers and to
further investigate the functions of the hippocampus in spatial memory.
Procedure
• Natural experiment.
• The participants for this study were 16 healthy, right-handed male London taxi drivers.
• The taxi drivers' MRI brain scans were compared with the scans of 50 healthy right-
handed males who did not drive taxis.
• The amount of years the drivers had been driving taxis for was also recorded.
Results
• The posterior regions (back parts) of the taxi drivers' hippocampi were significantly
larger than those of control subjects and the anterior (front) hippocampal region was
larger in control subjects than in taxi drivers.
• Also, hippocampal volume of the right hippocampus in each taxi driver correlated with
the amount of time spent as a taxi driver - positively in the right posterior and
negatively in the right anterior hippocampus. (So the back part of the right hippocampus
grew larger and the front part shrank).
• The larger posterior hippocampi made the taxi drivers more proficient at spatial
memory and navigation.
Conclusion
• This study demonstrates the plasticity of the hippocampus in response to environmental
demands
• suggesting that the changes in hippocampal grey matter, at least on the right, are
acquired.
• The environmental demands of being able to navigate a complex structure of streets led
the taxi drivers to develop more pronounced posterior hippocampi than the control
subjects
RM - brain
, RESEARCH METHOD
Explain the use of one research method in one study of the brain and behavior.
Lab Experiment
• Establishes cause-effect relationships
• Allows researchers to manipulate an independent variable and measure its effect on
dependent variable
• Other variables are keep constant to eliminate as many other factors that could
potentially influence the behavior.
• Participants are often randomly allocated to conditions
• Placebo is often used as a control condition → prevents demand characteristics.
Maguire et al. (2000)
Aim
To investigate whether changes could be detected in the brains of London taxi drivers and to
further investigate the functions of the hippocampus in spatial memory.
Procedure
• Natural experiment.
• The participants for this study were 16 healthy, right-handed male London taxi drivers.
• The taxi drivers' MRI brain scans were compared with the scans of 50 healthy right-
handed males who did not drive taxis.
• The amount of years the drivers had been driving taxis for was also recorded.
Results
• The posterior regions (back parts) of the taxi drivers' hippocampi were significantly
larger than those of control subjects and the anterior (front) hippocampal region was
larger in control subjects than in taxi drivers.
• Also, hippocampal volume of the right hippocampus in each taxi driver correlated with
the amount of time spent as a taxi driver - positively in the right posterior and
negatively in the right anterior hippocampus. (So the back part of the right hippocampus
grew larger and the front part shrank).
• The larger posterior hippocampi made the taxi drivers more proficient at spatial
memory and navigation.
Conclusion
• This study demonstrates the plasticity of the hippocampus in response to environmental
demands
• suggesting that the changes in hippocampal grey matter, at least on the right, are
acquired.
• The environmental demands of being able to navigate a complex structure of streets led
the taxi drivers to develop more pronounced posterior hippocampi than the control
subjects
RM - brain
