Meany et al (1988)

Uses: genetics, animal studies, epigenetics

Aim: To investigate the effect of hormones on memories, and it is also a demonstration of epigenetics

Procedures:

Mice were split into two groups, the treatment group, and the control group. Treatment groups were taken away from their mother and groomed 15 minutes every day with a brush while the control group were taken away but are not groomed.

Result:

The grooming activated epigenetics and they produce less stress hormone in stressful situations, it also made their memory performance better.

Conclusion:

Long-term exposure to cortisol causes neurons to admit more calcium through channels in their membrane.  This leads to over-stimulation which then leads to hippocampal cell death. This is a problem when it comes to our ability to create a memory as the hippocampus is the location of acetylcholine receptor sites. Loss of hippocampal cells correlates with lower levels of acetylcholine. Research shows that there is a correlation between high levels of glucocorticoids, low levels of acetylcholine, and Alzheimer's.

Epigenetics relating to stress hormone is activated by parents' grooming. epigenetics.

Michael J Meaney, 1988, DOI: 10.1126/science.3340858