4.5.12

Investigating Heart Rates

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Investigating Heart Rates

The effect of different substances on heart rates can be investigated using Daphnia crustaceans.

Daphnia

Daphnia

  • Daphnia are small, transparent crustaceans that can be used to investigate the effect of different chemicals on heart rates.
    • Because they are transparent, it is easy to count the heart rate of Daphnia.
Experiment

Experiment

  • To conduct this experiment, six Daphnia are placed in beakers of water and cooled.
    • Cooling helps lower the heart rate, making it easier to count.
  • The heart rate of all six Daphnia are measured prior to being placed into the beakers.
    • Three Daphnia are then placed in beakers with equal volumes of pond water. This is the control group.
    • Three Daphnia are placed in beakers with equal volumes of pond water + 0.5% caffeine. This is the experimental group.
Experiment - 2

Experiment - 2

  • All six Daphnia are then left for 30 minutes.
  • After 30 minutes the heart rate of each Daphnia is counted for 30 seconds.
  • All conditions apart from the addition of caffeine should remain constant throughout the experiment.
    • These conditions include temperature, glucose concentration, the volume of pond water, and size of the beaker.
Results

Results

  • The results are shown in the table. Some important points to note are:
    • The Daphnia in just pond water are the control group. This is to ensure any change in heart rate is due to the addition of caffeine.
    • Three Daphnia are used in each group as it allows the mean heart rate to be calculated.
    • This allows the detection of any anomalous results.
      • An anomalous result does not fit the pattern of the other results. This may be due to an experimental error.
Interpreting results

Interpreting results

  • As you can see from the results, adding caffeine increases the heart rate of Daphnia.
  • This is because caffeine is positively chronotropic.
    • Positive chronotropes increase the heart rate.
  • Caffeine does this by inhibiting specific receptors in the heart. Stimulation of these receptors normally decreases heart rates.
    • So, when caffeine inhibits these receptors, heart rate increases.
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