Maguire and colleagues investigated whether intensive navigation experience is associated with differences in brain structure. They used structural MRI to compare the brains of licensed London taxi drivers, who had spent years learning the complex layout of the city's streets, with those of people who did not drive taxis. The taxi drivers had significantly more grey matter in the posterior hippocampus, a region linked to spatial memory, and less in the anterior hippocampus. Moreover, the volume of the posterior hippocampus was correlated with the number of years a driver had spent doing the job, with more experienced drivers showing larger posterior hippocampi. The researchers concluded that the structure of the hippocampus can change in response to extensive use, consistent with neuroplasticity in the adult human brain.
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References: Maguire, E. A., Gadian, D. G., Johnsrude, I. S., Good, C. D., Ashburner, J., Frackowiak, R. S. J. and Frith, C. D., 2000. 'Navigation-related structural change in the hippocampi of taxi drivers.' Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 97(8), pp. 4398 to 4403. source adapted.
Discuss the following study with reference to two or more of the following concepts: bias, causality, measurement, and/or responsibility.
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Maguire et al. can be discussed effectively through causality, measurement and bias, because the study is often treated as strong evidence for neuroplasticity, yet the strength of that claim depends on how the data were produced and interpreted. Overall, the study gives persuasive support for an association between nav