Martinez and Kesner (1991)

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Martinez and Kesner (1991)

Aim: To determine the role of the neurotransmitter acetylcholine on memory

Procedure: Rats were trained to go through a maze and find the end, where food was located. When the rats learned how to get through the maze, he divided them into three groups. The first group was injected with scopolamine, which blocks the acetylcholine receptor sites. The second group was injected with physostigmine. Physostigmine blocks the production of cholinesterase which does the “clean-up” of acetylcholine from the synapse and returns the neuron to its “resting state”. The third group was not injected because they were the control group.

Results: The results showed that the group that had been injected with scopolamine were slower and made more errors than the two other groups. The physostigmine group was faster than both groups and also made less errors when running through the maze.

Conclusion: The researchers could from the results conclude that the neurotransmitter acetylcholine is a very important part when creating a memory.

Evaluation: The use of a control group in an experiment made it possible to establish a cause-and-effect relationship between the acetylcholine level and memory. The limitations of this study was that it is not certain to what extent this can be generalized to humans.

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