Antonova et al 2011

• Antonova et al 2011

  Aim - To observe the effect of scopolamine, which inhibits acetylcholine receptors, in hippocampus activity in creation of spatial memory
• Antonova et al 2011

  Participants - 20 right handed healthy male with a mean age of 28 yo
• Antonova et al 2011

  Procedure - Double blind experiment. Participants were either injected with scopolamine (a acetylcholine antagonist) or placebo. They were placed in an MRI while playing a virtual reality game. After they were told where the pole was located, the screen blacked out for 30 seconds. During this period of time the participants had to rehearse how to get to the pole. After the maze reappeared, participants had to use spatial memory to determine where the pole was from a new starting point.
• Antonova et al 2011

  Results - Participants injected with scopolamine showed significant reduction in hippocampus activation than placebo. They were also slower and made more mistakes the second time.

  
  

  This shows that in the placebo condition, acetylcholine was binding to the excitatory synapses that helps create spatial memories. But in the scopolamine condition, the receptor sites were blocked so acetylcholine couldn't bind to the site.
• Antonova et al was good because it used a repeated measures design which eliminates participant variability. Double blind experiment controls for researcher bias. There were controls which increased reliability.
• Antonova et al 2011 was limited because its small sample size of 20 males reduces generalizability. Factors like stress could have affected MRI results. There was a higher rate of error and time taken for the scopolamine group, it wasn't a significant difference
• Acetylcholine is an excitatory neurotransmitter that regulates functions like blood pressure, heart contractions, and heart rate. It binds to the postsynaptic neuron to create new spatial memories
• Scopolamine is an inhibitory neurotransmitter that functions as an acetylcholine inhibitor.