University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Lesson 4: How does glucose affect memory in aging populations?

This lesson is part of the unit:

Lesson Description:

In this lesson, students learn about the role of adrenalin and glucose in age-related rapid forgetting. Using the models from previous lessons, students design and conduct their own experiments to discover possible reasons for age-related memory loss in elderly people. Students perform experiments using “Rat Recall”, a program simulating behavior of young and old rats in a task designed to test memory retention. Rat Recall allows students to test the effects of glucose and epinephrine on memory. This simulation builds on behavioral data collected in experiments conducted by neuroscientist Dr. Paul Gold at Syracuse University. After performing their group experiments, students work as a class to determine the roles that adrenalin and glucose may have in age-related memory loss.

 

Materials last updated:

Feb 3, 2015

Lesson materials:

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