Germany bans meetings of more than two people
Germany bans meetings of more than two people
Learning Outcome Essay: Explain one study related to localization of function.
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Explain one study related to localization of function.
Localisation of brain function refers to the theory that psychological functions are located in specific areas of the brain. This means that certain brain structures or brain regions are in charge of particular behaviours, cognitions, and emotions. One study that was made investigating the localisation of function was the study by Maguire et al. in 2000, where they were researching the spatial memory which is a function of the hippocampus.
The study made by Maguire et al. in 2000 aimed to examine possible changes in the brain of taxi driver, and specifically focusing on the development of the spatial memory in the hippocampus. The researchers also wanted to find out if there was a correlation between the duration that the taxi drivers had been working and the size of the hippocampus. The participants of this study were 16 males. They were all right-handed, physically healthy and between the ages of 32 and 62 years. They were all licensed taxi drivers that had been working for at least 1,5 years. There was also one control group with 50 randomly selected participants. These were also all male, right-handed, physically healthy and in the same age range (32-62) as the original participants. The researchers had MRI scans of all the participants and the control group to compare them. In the MRI scans, there was grey matter that represented the hippocampus, so this is how they could see the volume and size.
The researchers found that the taxi drivers had a larger hippocampus than the participants that were not taxi drivers, and this could be seen by looking at the grey matter areas on the scans which showed that the area of the grey matter in the taxi drivers brains than for the non-taxi drivers. They also found that there was a positive correlation between working time and size of hippocampus, meaning that the longer someone had been working as a taxi driver, the larger their hippocampal area was.
The researchers could conclude that the spatial memory development lead to an increase of the size of the hippocampus, because spatial memory is a function of the hippocampus and is located there.
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