Maguire et al 2000 Cheat Sheet (DRAFT) by Scubaani

• To invest­igate whether the hippoc­ampus plays a role in naviga­tional experience
• To invest­igate whether the healthy human brain can undergo structural changes in response to extensive naviga­tional experience

• Natural experiment
• Indepe­ndent measures design

• Whether the person was a taxi driver or not

• Volume of the hippoc­ampus (anterior, posterior, body sections)
• A correl­ation was also conducted on taxi drivers between the amount of time as a taxi driver and the hippoc­ampal volume

• Taxi drivers - 16, right handed, male, healthy, around 44 years old, average of 14.3 years as a taxi driver
• Controls - matched for health, handed­ness, sex average age age range

Structural MRI to see the hippoc­ampus structure.

• VBM results - Taxi drivers had increased grey matter in the right and left posterior hippoc­ampus compared to controls
• Pixel counting - taxi drivers had a larger posterior hippoc­ampus while the controls had a larder anterior hippoc­ampus
• Correl­ations - A signif­icant correl­ation was found between the time ad a taxi driver and right posterior hippoc­ampus volume (but negative one for the right anterior section)

• Correl­ations indicate -
- Human spatial repres­ent­ations are stored in the posterior hippoc­ampus
- Structural rearra­ngement in taxi drivers reflects the amount of naviga­tional activity
- The healthy human brain can change structure in response to naviga­tional ability
- Study doesn't show how these brain changes occur