Planaria And Caffeine Experiment

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Planaria are commonly known as flatworms. These flatworms have sensory organs which allow them to detect light using eyespots (Planaria,2017). The eyespots contain receptors that are highly sensitive to light stimuli causing planaria to prefer darkness. Planaria do not have lungs nor gills. Oxygen enters their bodies through membrane diffusion. Although planaria are just worms, their body react very similar to that of humans when injected with certain drugs or stimulants. One overused and highly popular stimulant is caffeine. Caffeine is known to increase individual’s energy and physical activity which makes them more alert of the surroundings. This observation leads to the question of how different concentrations of caffeine would affect planaria’s …show more content…

Planaria usually live in water, water doesn’t have any effect on them which the reason why it is used as a control group in this experiment. Planarian will be put near the edge in a two-chamber tray containing water, in the side that is not covered with a dark piece of paper. Five planaria will be tested in a 2- chamber tray. We will measure how long it takes the planaria to move from the edge of a chamber receiving light, to the dark chamber. Subsequently, start by adding the lower concentration of caffeine in the water, replacing planarian in the same position and measuring how long it takes now to go back to the dark chamber in the presence of caffeine. We will duplicate the same procedure with higher concentrations of caffeine and additionally take the average of the time all five planaria took to move from the edge of the chamber in brightness, to the dark chamber in different concentrations of …show more content…

Humans and Planaria react similarly to caffeine, they both will become more alert and acknowledging. Caffeine can increase their physical activity. Furthermore, this organism can be useful as a model to help investigate certain effects that drugs might have on humans, psychologically for instance. There are neurotransmitters found in the human brain that have also been discovered in the planarian’s nervous system (Sarnat & Netsky 1985) which give us the ability and opportunity to explore these organisms to better comprehend certain aspects of the human nervous system and get insight for future healing

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