Rogers & Kesner

Aim

To determine the role of acetylcholine in the formation of spatial memories

Procedure

30 rats got familiar with a Hebb Williams maze by placing food in one corner.

• Two conditions:

Experimental - injected with scopolamine, intended to block the receptor sites of acetylcholine, thus, inhibiting response.
Control - placebo saline solution.

• Encoding memory was assessed by the average number of errors in the first five trials of Day 1 vs the last five trials of Day 1.

• Retrieval of memory was assessed by the average number of errors in the last five trials of Day 1 vs the first five trials of Day 2.

Results

• The findings were that the scopolamine group took longer and made more mistakes in the learning of the maze - that is, there was a higher average number of mistakes made on the last five trials on Day 1.

• However, it did not appear to have an effect on retrieval of memories that had already been created. It appears that acetylcholine may play an important role in the consolidation of spatial memories.

Strengths

The researchers used a rigorously controlled experiment with a placebo condition to avoid the effect of confounding (extraneous) variables

Limitations

The study is able to establish a cause and effect relationship; however, it is a reductionist approach to understanding memory. There are several different types of memory and the process of memory consolidation is very complex.

• The research could one day apply to the development of treatments for people suffering from dementia or Alzheimer's disease.

• Biologists believe that animals can serve as models for human physiology and behavior; however, there are questions about the extent to which findings can be generalized to humans.

Ethical Considerations

Ethical considerations of animal research