brain plasticity

• definition: brain plasticity


  the brain's tendency to change and adapt as a result of experience
• what are the two types of brain plasticity?

  synaptic pruning and synaptic bridging
• what is synaptic pruning?

  rarely used connections are deleted or lost
• what is synaptic bridging?

  new connections are created due to use and new stimuli
• what did Maguire et al do and find out about plasticity?

  • studied hippocampus of London taxi drivers
  • found larger vol of grey matter in theirs than in a control group
  • those longer on job= more pronounced structural differences
  • evidence for differences between hippocampi due to plasticity
• other than plasticity, what else does mauire et al's study prove?

  localisation of function
• what are the strengths of maguire et al's study?

  • use of MRI scanning produced objective data
  • evidence for plasticity and localisation
• what did Draganksi et al study and find out about plasticity?

  • scanned brains of medical students 3 months before and right after an exam
  • compared their scans to students not studying for an exam
  • found changes in parietal cortex and posterior hippocampus after 3 months
  • these structures are involved in memory retrieval and learning
• what are the strengths for brain plasticity? (AO3)

  • plasticity has life-long abilities
• how does plasticity have life-long abilities (AO3)?

  • Bezzola et al found 40 hours of golf practice causes changes in neural representations of movement
  • fMRI observed increased activity in motor cortex in ages 40-60 after this
  • compared to a control group
  • shows neural plasticity continues throughout our lifespan
• what limitation is there for brain plasticity (AO3)?

  • negative behavioural consequences
• what negative behaviour consequences are there for plasticity? (AO3)

  • Medina et al found brain adaptions to drug use lead to poorer cognitive functions
  • amputees develop phantom limb syndrome
  • Ramachandran and Hirstein believe this is due to cortical reorganisation in somatosensory area
  • ability to adapt to changes is not always beneficial
• what strength is there for plasticity? (AO3)


  • it has life-long abilities
• how does plasticity have life-long abilities? (AO3)

  • Bezzola et al found 40hrs of golf practice causes changes in neural representations of movement
  • fMRI observed increased motor cortex activity as result
  • this is compared to a control group
  • shows neural plasticity continues throughout our lifespan