IB Psychology
Neuroplasticity and Neurotransmitters
You have read about neuroplasticity and neurotransmitters in Sections 3.3
and 3.4 of Chapter 4 of the Pamoja Student Guide
1. SAQs may be asked on any of the terms in the table below. Research their
meaning and complete the definition columns.
Term
neuron
Definition
Information processing units of the brain that’s
responsible for sending and receiving
electrochemical signals throughout the body
neural networks
Technique to stimulate the neuronal changes in the
brain
neural pruning
Process of removing the neurons that are no longer
useful
agonist
Causes a chemical reaction in the brain
antagonist
Chemical that binds to receptors in brain and
prevents an agonist from having a reaction
excitatory
A type of synapse in which an action potential in a
*synapse/neurotransmitter presynaptic neuron increases the probability of an
action potential occurring in a postsynaptic cell.
inhibitory
They block or prevent the chemical message from
synapse/neurotransmitter being passed along any farther.
* A neurotransmitter acting in an excitatory/inhibitory way results in a synapse
that is also excitatory/inhibitory
2. Read about acetylcholine and also about neuroplasticity in the Pamoja Student
Guide. Then fill in the blanks in the following paragraphs, which will prove useful
for your understanding of many of the required terms.
Acetylcholine (ACh) is a neurotransmitter that was shown by the researcher
Antonova to act as an aid to spatial memory in the hippocampus and the medial
temporal lobe. She conducted an experiment using humans that was very similar
to Martinez and Kesner’s experiment with humans. Like them, she concluded
that ACh is important for spatial memory formation and that the chemical
scopolamine acts as an antagonist, reducing the effect of ACh and resulting in
slower times when going through a virtual maze.
ACh also acts in an antagonist way in the synapse and a reduction in ACh
receptors and ACh activity in the medial temporal lobe is one of the first
symptoms of alzheimer’s disease .
Maguire conducted a quasi-experiment (also described in many texts as a
natural experiment) to investigate neuroplasticity in the hippocampus in London
taxi-drivers. The researchers demonstrated that there was a positive correlation
between the number of years spent driving a taxi and the increased volume of
the hippocampal grey matter. This shows that the brain can change In response
to ____________________.
Draganski investigated structural and functional changes in the brain with a field
experiment where participants learnt to juggle, and then stopped juggling. The
results showed that while learning a new skill increased the neuronal connections
of certain areas of the brain, stopping the learnt activity resulted in neural
pruning.